|
There is a documentary movie called After Innocence that follows the stories of several guys who were wrongly convicted of a crime then later released on DNA evidence. In all but one of the cases they had no evidence other than the testimony of the victim. It turn out in the case of violent crimes the victims identify the wrong person over 80% of the time. All of these guys were sentenced before DNA was used regularly.
In many states they don't pay you any kind of restitution and they don't voluntarily expunge your record. They give you $20 for a cab and send you on your way. If you want the crime taken off your record you have hire a lawyer to do it and it costs around 6K to get done otherwise you are still a convicted felon. In one case (in Florida) the DNA proved they had the wrong guy yet the state dragged it out for two more years. The DA even said they know they have the wrong guy, but that the defense wrongly filed a paper so he has to fight it. It was pretty despicable how they were still forcing a guy who they knew was innocent to stay behind bars because of paperwork. The people that worked to help these guys are part of a group that is run by Berry Sheck, the DNA guy from the OJ defense team, and the have freed a few hundred people that were wrongly convicted then proven innocent from DNA.
It is a very interesting movie that everyone should see. If you think you could never go to jail or be wrongly accused, you are wrong. A couple of the guys in the movie just happened to be the same height and wearing the same color shirt as the suspect. They were walking down the street doing nothing wrong, going about their business, arrested, wrongly identified by the victim and spent over 10 years in jail for something they didn't do. Pretty sad. It does make me happy though that we have DNA now and it can really save your ass or help ensure that they have the right person.
|