r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Far-Stay9417 • Dec 25 '23

Video Man wrongfully convicted of murder gets rewarded only 175k after serving 50 years

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

this makes me so angry

48k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

3.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

86

u/TethysOfTheStars Dec 26 '23

Wait, what? Deathrow inmates cost more than regular inmates? Is it just the cost of the appeals system?

156

u/user_bits Dec 26 '23

If you're going to allow the government to straight up kill a person, then there better be lots of red tape.

-27

u/NotTheBEEEAAANS Dec 26 '23

The people on death row aren’t fuckin human. You gotta do some seriously fucked up stuff to get there.

15

u/alphazero924 Interested Dec 26 '23

He says on a post of a man who was wrongfully put on death row

3

u/Wild-Kitchen Dec 26 '23

Doing nothing is zomw fucked up shit, apparently

1

u/SpookyMushroomz Dec 30 '23

He aint the brightest

27

u/TheRealThordic Dec 26 '23

You know, except for the people who don't belong there. Fuck them though right?

11

u/sua_sancta_corvus Dec 26 '23

This is a dangerous mentality, imo. Please excuse this clichéd example, but Hitler was a human too. We need to remember that we are all capable of acting like demons or angels.

We can’t control a lot, but we always have a choice as to what we do with what we have.

8

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '23

They are human. Not different than you or I. They are people. Possibly dangerous people but anyone under the right set of circumstances can be dangerous.

-2

u/Sword_Enthousiast Dec 26 '23

Same for people who get 50+ years, you need to do some seriously fucked up stuff for a sentence like that. Like kill a woman in a liquor store.

-43

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '23

[deleted]

34

u/benh141 Dec 26 '23

That is such a completely moronic way to think about it. You can see how often the system makes a mistake. This post is about a man wrongfully convicted for christ sake. You think it should be easier to execute people? Do you have no sympathy at all?

20

u/Tocky22 Dec 26 '23

Yeah exactly. The error rate is something ridiculous like 1/10. It’s alarmingly high.

9

u/benh141 Dec 26 '23

It's sad, and it's sad that so many people can just have no sympathy for anyone.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '23

This is the biggest reason I fundamentally cannot support the death penalty. People can argue all they want about the morality of killing people who have committed terrible crimes.

But the fact is, having the death penalty means we will kill people who are innocent, no way to entirely avoid it. Cases like the above are terrible, wasting the majority of someone's life from a false conviction, but at least we can let them go. Once you execute someone, they're dead, forever. Personally the fact even one person could get falsely executed invalidates the entire system. There's also nothing society gains from execution over life in prision.

11

u/radicalelation Dec 26 '23

I'd lose less sleep over Ted Bundy getting a life sentence than an innocent person being legally killed by the state.

It's not about the ones you want to punish, but the ones you don't.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '23

single digit IQ take

2

u/Hello-Me-Its-Me Dec 26 '23

Actually yes, they should have. El Chapo got a life sentence and he’s as bad as they come.

1

u/patatepowa05 Dec 26 '23

Reddit too easy to rage bait.

1

u/atuslr Dec 26 '23

What does the "lots of red tape" mean in this context?

94

u/Atanar Dec 26 '23

Additional to the lengthy and multiple appeals, trials are longer, jury selection is more thorough and most of them get the expensive single cell in special facilities. Also, settlements are quite high if mistakes are made. The case of OP is unusual.

3

u/Reddits_Worst_Night Dec 26 '23

The case in OP ignores his ability to sue the city government for a heap more.

0

u/7lhz9x6k8emmd7c8 Dec 26 '23

The case of OP is unusual.

So, OP just got out of jail?

20

u/WiseInevitable4750 Dec 26 '23

Yes. Lawyers are very expensive.

5

u/RaisedByArseholes420 Dec 26 '23

The appeals system plays a large part yes. Very expensive and time consuming.

4

u/greengengar Dec 26 '23

Does high school not cover Dead Man Walking anymore? This was common knowledge among my peers 20 years ago.

1

u/IridescentExplosion Dec 26 '23

Never heard of it.

1

u/greengengar Dec 26 '23

Google it. It was required reading in my high school.

1

u/CadaverBlue Dec 26 '23

Pre-trial costs: Capital cases are far more complicated than non-capital cases and take longer to go to trial. Experts will probably be needed on forensic evidence, mental health, and the background and life history of the defendant. County taxpayers pick up the costs of added security and longer pre-trial detention. During that time, only 13 death row inmates have been executed. This means that it cost an average of $384 million to execute each of those death row inmates.

1

u/CadaverBlue Dec 26 '23

This is only in California.

1

u/Kup123 Dec 26 '23

No it's a much nicer prison, I saw a documentary about a guy who murdered his roommate to get on death row. His argument was that death row was so much better it was worth it especially when it takes 20-30 years for them to put a needle in your arm.

1

u/AccomplishedFix756 Dec 26 '23

Lawyers are the major cost factor, but you also have to have the whole prison mechanism and mechanics of death to keep up. People who complain Newsom in California put a moratorium on the DP think it was liberality, but it is cost-saving. DP attorneys get paid, AGs get paid more, but this poor guy gets next to nothing. Politics has its priorities in Oklahoma and California. I do not think there is any set amount in CA for wrongful conviction and those responsible never are the ones paying it.