That's fucked up, stupid shit like that happens all the time. Up here in Canada in 1970, the police couldn't find a child murderer so they railroaded some poor hippy named David Milgaard. He spent 23 years in prison until his mother fought to have him freed based on new DNA evidence. He got $10 million (Canadian), but that's hardly worth the hell he went through. Everyone thought he killed a kid, he got it really bad in jail.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/milgaard/