Ricky Jackson, a 58-year-old man who spent all of his adult life in an Ohio prison cell for a murder he didn’t commit, was awarded a “whopping” million dollars to compensate him for the prosecutorial misconduct that led to his conviction.
$1,000,000
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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The Clevland Plain Dealer claims that Eddie Vernon was only 12 years old when he falsely testified (http://www.CLEAVLAND.COM/court-justice/index.ssf/2014/11/finally_exonerated_friends_lea.html#incart_story_package) that he had seen Ricky Jackson et al. What I can’t help wondering is from what budget that princely one million USD which Mr Jackson has been «awarded» as compensation for wrongfully spending 39 years in prison is taken. As we know (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/06/stop-and-seize/), many police departments in the US partially finance their activities by means of a procedure known as «civil asset forfeiture» (sounds better than «robbery») ; why not then, make these departments – and prosecutors offices financially responsible for the crimes they commit, while increasing compensation to wrongfully imprisoned persons by at least a factor of ten ?…
In any event, Mr Jackson should be advised against converting that one million USD to cash and driving with it in his possession ; the risk that it would be confiscated («forfeited») to the cops is hardly negligible….
Henri
I followed the Guardian’s coverage. They said age 13.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/20/court-awards-more-than-1-million-to-cleveland-man-who-was-wrongly-imprisoned-for-39-years-0
Saw that. The English-language version of Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Jackson_and_Wiley_Bridgeman) cites the Plain Dealer, which should be closer to the ground here than the Guardian. Guess someone ought to travel to Cleveland and ask Mr Vernon about his date of birth….
Still hope that funds for compensation for wrongful imprisonment will be taken from the budgets of the respective police departments and prosecutor’s offices involved ; that would no doubt serve as an incitement to taken greater care when charging people….
Henri
HuffPost also reports Vernon’s age as 13:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/19/ricky-jackson-awarded_n_6906304.html