No compo after 22yrs wrongly in jail
 

Link to the Story

This is so bad. I would definately sue. He didn't even get the $100 that Florida gives to its most vicious convicts.

Our state law does allow wrongfully convicted persons to sue the state for damages. They don't get much, it's in the six-figure range, but it's better than nothing.

Hopefully, he used his time in prison to get an education, improve himself in some way and maybe he'll have a shot at not ending up there again.

I wonder if there's any way under Florida law that he can go after that 17-year-old who is now 39 for ruining his life?

If he raped her now, would he be charged?

-Rudey

Ha Ha double jeapoardy? Yeah, I think she owes him a freeby. The least he should do is make sure there is huge media attention on who she is, put her name out there, make a web site.

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/007550.html

There is a comment half way down the page from someone who knows the victim (I am talking about the guy released) that was enlightening.

Regardless this girl was still raped, and it wasn't this man. He doesn't harbor any anger to her, and he feels bad that she was raped. To make comments that she owes him a freebie is disgusting. She is still a victim, you want to put her name and picture out there?

If he isn't angry with her, why do you want to persecute her?

Here is a quote from him:
"I have no hard feelings against her," he said. "I'm sorry it happened to her. I can't do anything to change what happened to her. I believe that when it started she believed she was telling the truth. I don't hold any animosity against her. But I was brought up to look at the good in people. But going through all this I lost a lot of faith in people. I look at people differently."

Link to article

James, James, James...

I know that statement was probably meant to be funny, but really really not necessary. Remember the whole discussion about rape in the Pledged thread? Perhaps you should review it.

The man being wrongly convicted and imprisoned for 22 years was not solely the issue of the rape victim but of the entire state justice system. Are you going to do the same to the members of the jury and the judge, the witnesses and prosecutors? Have their pictures posted and make them give "freebies." Please.

I think the man has a great attitude about wanting to move on and get his life back. It is not our place to do anything more than grant him that opportunity.

IT was meant to be flippant.

But, her eyewitness testimony, her picking him out of the line-up and saying that is the man that raped me, went an awful long way towards seeing him behind bars.

Yes, the system failed, but keep in mind there was no DNA testing then.

She picked him out as the one. That a pretty big mistake or deception. With enormous consequences for him. Perhaps sh could spend a dollar and send him a post card with an, "I'm sorry you spent 22 years in jail?"

And as far as his positive attitude, what else can he really say on TV like that? Foam at the mouth?

There are plenty of people who do react that way on camera and in print. That's the kind of reaction reporters love. Even the link you yourself posted gives first-person anectodes of the man as a very kind person so I'd like to give him the benefit of a doubt.
Perhaps it was an [honest] mistake. When you're in a situation like that and it's dark and you force your mind to be somewhere completely separate from where your body is, it's understandable that mistakes get made. Some victims remember every little detail, burned crystalline into their minds, about their attacker. Others make it fuzzy and push it to the back of their memories, hoping to never think about it again. It's different for everyone.

There is also the issue of dishonest witnesses and lawyers which was discussed in the link aurora_borealis posted. Who knows what really happened during trials? None of us.

I think it's horrible what happened to him and that he does deserve some sort of compensation from the state but comments like that against the rape victim (serious or not) are not really needed.

I'm with James. The woman that accused him certainly had some responsibility in this. Probably not as much as the prosecutors. I'm not sure this kind of thing can be an indictment against the unfair, corrupt system that many want it to be. It's imperfect, but I think it's the most fair you're going to find in the World (Canada, Australia and the UK are up there as well).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that the rape victim is completely blameless in this situation, she definitely has responsibility to own up to but there are other factors that are involved that we need to consider.

My issue in this thread is James' first flippant comment that she owed the man a "freebie." I don't appreciate that kind of comment.

Nor do I! :)

Well to be specific, and since we are reading a lot into a flip comment, the comment doesn't generalize or diminish victims of sexual assault all over the world like you guys are taking it.

It only applies to those that falsely accuse someone and sends them to jail for decades :)

Did she testify that he was the one who raped her? If so, she's both a victim and a criminal, and she deserves to spend some time behind bars.

Yes, agreed.

Obviously none of you are victims of sexual assault.

If accusing an innocent is anything like filing a false report, she'd just get probation if she went to ISU.

No, but falsely accusing anyone (if that's what happened) of anything should never, under any circumstances, be acceptable.

Yes, being a victim of sexual assault should give you carte blanche to imprison innocent people for 22 years.

It turns out that he's not guilty and she is -- of perjury at the very least.

To reiterate:
I'm NOT saying she should have carte blanche. I'm NOT saying she shouldn't have to have some type of punitive measures for wrongly indentifying that man but for the love of all things holy she was RAPED. Until you have had that happen to you, you cannot even begin to comprehend the affect it has on someone's psyche. Do you think after the trial she went back to being a happy, normal teenager? I highly doubt that. That shit stays with you for the Rest Of Your Life. Neither of those two people will ever have their lives back the way it was before the incident.

Obviously, I'm coming at this from an emotional angle as a woman and you're coming at this from an analytical angle as men. We will not agree on this issue.

I think that because of the lack of details, it's really difficult to say who's at fault here. As stated, it was probably not simply one woman's testimony that put this guy behind bars but a combination of many things. As ISUKappa said, there are a number of factors at play here and it was a failure of the justice system as a whole, not just due to one woman. That doesn't excuse what happened, and I think there should definitely be an investigation into how this man was wrongfully arrested and how we can prevent mistakes like this in the future . . . but comments like "she owes him a freebie" are tasteless at best and insensitive and damaging at worst.

I dunno, if a man was beaten with a lead pipe and cripled, we would still think it was bad that he Identified the wrong person and helped put him behind bars for 22 years.

We are not arguing a double standard.

So her discomfort and issues at the time somehow excuse this?

-Rudey

No. Please re-read what I have posted.

We are human, we make mistakes. Horrible mistakes sometimes. We're not perfect. Making a mistake such as wrongly identifying an attacker and putting him away in jail is not excusable but unfortunately, the world isn't as black and white and cut and dry as you seem to be making it. Emotions are involved, lives are involved. You're making it sound as if this woman connived to get this man in prison. We don't know what really happened at those trials, we probably never will. We don't know what other factors are involved, what kind of evidence there was, how good the lawyers were at spinning their stories to sway the judge and jury.

C'mon people, I watch Law and Order. I know how this shit goes down! ;)

Rudey - Her discomfort and issues are with her forever. As are the man's memories of 22 years in prison. They are not the same, neither can be compared as worse than the other, but they are both permanent markers on their lives.

I'm under the impression that this woman (girl since she was 17) was truly raped and testified that she truly believed this man was the rapist. Does anyone have information that contradicts that? Unfortunately, sometimes eyewitnesses make mistakes without malice toward the accused. DNA was not a factor at the time 22 years ago so her eyewitness testimony was crucial.

That said, I feel very sorry for this man who lost 22 years of his life in prison. Nothing can compensate him for that, but some money might help.

So tomorrow this man rapes the woman. Will you defend it in some sense by saying his emotions were involved and all that good stuff? I mean it seems that if we use this logic a vicious cycle occurs where people do awful things to each other over and over and it won't stop because emotions are involved, etc.

-Rudey

I don't think that anyone in this thread has said that what has happened was okay. I don't think anyone has said that there shouldn't be some kind of investigation into this case so we can see how to avoid it in the future. I don't think anyone has said that there shouldn't be some kind of investigation into the case to see whether or not this woman deserves punishment.

What we're saying is that it is an unavoidable fact that mistakes happen. And sometimes they are really shitty mistakes that end up with people being wrongfully imprisoned for 22 years or more. This is by no means the only case out there -- rape or not -- where this has happened. Chances are that it is not 100 percent this woman's fault that the man ended up in jail. Like I said earlier, unless this woman conspired to get this man convicted and knowingly lied about it, it was a failure of the justice system as a whole, not just her own fault.

And we're also saying that comments like James' -- which he somehow seems to pull out of his ass in every thread about rape despite being told repeatedly that they are not only offensive but legitimately harmful, since they are exactly the reason why most rapes are never reported -- are less than helpful.

Got it, so girl is traumatized = excuses her of any kind of responsibility in this.

How about the trauma of 22 years in jail? 22 years is a long damned part of your life to lose. Without her testimony, do you think this guy would be behind bars? Without her swearing to something she wasn't sure about, would he have lost 22 years of her life?

I think she bears some grave responsibility in this and if this gentleman is to be awarded any kind of compensation, a good chunk needs to come from her.

OMFG. Have you even read anything we've posted? Seriously.

I think the big issue is still this idea of the Freebie, James claimed this woman owes the newly-innocent man.

Yes, the woman made a very bad mistake.
Yes, there could be a civil/criminal lawsuit brought against her.
But she does not ever, even for a minute deserve to be raped. A freebie, regardless of what you call it, is rape. No one deserves to be sexually assulted, and that is at least what I find most offensive in this whole thing.

To neglect the insensitivity of that statement on a public board where I know we have women who have been sexually assulted is outragous.

Talk about how she deserves to be punished if you must, but pull yourselves above the bar of decency that ever victim of sexual assault deserves.

Just as this man not even for a minute deserved to go to jail. I don't care how the system failed but at the time of the case fi this woman picked him out of a line, fingered him as the rapist, that would make a huge case against the main.

I don't think she owes him a freebie, no no, she owes this man 22 years of life. He became a victim of a crime. He spent over two decades in prison. I wonder what his feelings and emotions are like right now?

On the topic of assault and you don't know how to feel about it, who can say this man might not have been assaulted while spending so many years in prison? The probability is probably pretty high.

In any event, I hope the woman feels beyond horrible. I understand that she couldn't control that she was raped but she could have controlled sending this man to prison for such a long time. He was innocent and she was a victim and her feelings and situation at the time took a large part of life away from another person and that's horrible, beyond horrible....

Life I said, she doesn't owe this man a freebie, she owes him 22 years.

I feel that this statement is also insensitive to the issue of rape/sexual assault. You comment about women and women only when men are also sexually assaulted. Women aren't the only victims in such crimes.

We could also have men on this board that were assaulted and to neglect pointing out that possibility is also very insensitive..

(Not an attack just pointing out a common view that so many people still seem to hold.)

I don't think anyone is seriously sugguesting that she give him a freebie. It almost seems to me as if some are over here searching for new ways to be offended.

It wasn't a serious comment.

But what damasa said is true, she does owe this guy big for what she did to him.

Actually, I put it that way because I only know of women on this board who have been sexually assulted. I'm not discounted that men who have been sexually assulted, but I don't know of any on this board. Every victim of sexual assult deserves to be treated with the dignity and respect. I apologise to any men who were offended by my comment.

(and ktsnake - For a lot of people, rape is not something you joke about. I'm one of those people. Sorry.):rolleyes:

Ktsnake, at the time James posted the words "she owes him a freebie" I did not interpret that turn of a phrase as funny. I was initially very upset. Even after he said it was a "flippant" comment, I chalked it up to his ignorance. I guarantee you if he had been in a bar and said it in front of a group of women that still wouldn't fly. Rape whether it happens to a man,woman, or child is something that shouldn't be joked about.

The freed man shows alot of poise for bearing no ill will toward this woman. I agree that he should receive finanicial compensation, as well as counseling services at the states expense. He has every right to sue her. I think he should get as much help as possible. I'm sure she's been living in her own private hell.

Originally his brother was charged with the rape, I'm curious as to whether he'll be tested for DNA in this case.

I have left the rational universe and entered into the The Circus of the Absurd :p

What point are you guys arguing?

1. Some of you seem to be suggesting that its understandable that the original victim would identify an innocent man as her atacker given the crime, and that somehow the nature of the crime makes it not . . excusable, but . . .well you have a certain visceral sympathy for her putting an innocent man away.

News Flash: Her alleged rape, and his doing 22 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit don't intersect except at the point she faslely identified him.

2. Where does my joking comment: "I think she owes him a freebie?" correlate to: She deserves to be raped?

How can freely offering a freebie, by definition, be rape at all?

How does the statement extrapolate into any other case out there, unless that person also falsely accused someone and that accusation resulted in jail time?

How does the statement extrapolate to any women deserving to be sexualy assaulted?

And I guess i should offer a small apology to all women that the statement would would apply to:

I am truly sorry that people that were both sexually assaulted and also accused the wrong person of the assault, resulting in an innocent person going to jail for decades, were offended by my joking comment that the accuser offer a free sexual experience to the person after they were finally released for being innocent of the original accusation.

That apology should pretty much cover the entire debate :)

Understandable, yes. Not excusable.
I have sympathy for anyone (man, woman, child) who is a victim of any sexual assault. I also have sympathy for the innocent man.
Not alleged rape. She was raped. For the record, she was cut 65 times and raped twice during the incident. It may not have been by that man, but that doesn't take away the fact that it still happened.
It was a direct response by you to Rudey's post on what would happen if he raped her now. That is the correlation.

"Double jeopardy" was a direct reply to Rudey. Since double jeopardy is what Rudey is referring to.

I don't mind debating you guys but I wish you would be more careful readers. A lot of the other readers clearly understood the original post.

Rape can't be a freebie.

Actually, it can be. If she must submit to give her body as a "freebie" it is rape. That's how I took it.

ISUKappa, if this man raped her or killed her because she put him in prison since she was raped, would you find some sort of reasoning to excuse it? Seriously doesn't this create some never-ending cycle now with people doing awful things to each other because one person got emotional trauma?

And I'm asking you to not think with your heart and emotions.

-Rudey