Governor Bob McDonnell signed legislation that will award $1 million to Thomas Haynesworth for stealing 27 years of his life. Haynesworth was incarcerated for that length of time after being falsely accused and convicted of 5 rapes in the Richmond area. He was released last year and recently exonerated by a Virginia Court of Appeals of all crimes. Haynesworth was 18 when he was convicted. DNA testing proved his innocence.
The DNA testing leads to a lot of “What If” questions. What if there were no DNA samples saved? Haynesworth would not have been released. How many other men are wrongfully incarcerated for rape? How many of them are black? Not all convicts are guaranteed DNA testing for an appeal.
How can a million dollars begin to compensate someone for the loss of nearly 3 decades of their life? In fact, that amounts to about $37,000 a year. Haynesworth has been free for a year now. I hope his life had gone well. How could he go through 3 decades of prison and not just become a nasty bitter person? I am afraid I would be.
Then there is the biggest WHAT IF of all. What if Thomas Haynesworth were not black? Would he have been accused and convicted of 5 rapes he did not commit? We will never know, but its something to think about.
Tom Robinson had to die. Tom Haynesworth became a millionaire. I doubt he would think it was worth it.
Make Mr. Howler shut up. Someone has abducted him and made him do blog talk.
This is sort of too bad. Its your money that is going to pay for this mammoth mistake.
No opinions? give it all away.
THIS is why I struggle with the death penalty. You have cases that are so clear cut, like the home invasion in conneticut, but that is not all cases. What do you do about “circumstantial” evidence, or when there is an “eyewitness”. Lets not forget the case where the woman identified her rapist and ended up being wrong.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351402/Man-wrongfully-convicted-rape-freed-17-years-receives-compensation-does-hit-child-maintenance-bill.html
http://www.criminalattorneyusa.com/blog/innocent-man-rape-dna-evidence/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/04/cornelius-dupree-jr-prove_n_804010.html
Holy crap, NONE of these are the cases I was looking for. This should scare the crap out of anyone.
I feel better about the death penalty now DNA testing is available.
But what happens with the cases that have no DNA? THat is when I worry.
@Elena
I suppose they have to be weighed more judiciously. Were there witnesses? Some people will never be tied to DNA. I know of a couple cases where I have no problem with the person being executed. Powell comes to mind. George Michael comes to mind. Those murderous toads over in Maryland who took that girl from Frostberg and burned her alive. I could pull the switch myself.