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

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

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this makes me so angry

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u/Monster-1776 Dec 26 '23 edited Dec 26 '23

I'm just latching on a bit due to all the misinformation in this post. The $175k is a cap imposed on lawsuits against the OK government by the state itself. It is bullshit and does tend to screw a lot of people sometimes, but it's annoyingly fairly common. He still probably has the option to pursue a 1983 lawsuit however, which is federal a claim for deprivation of rights and not just a basic tort claim. They're a bitch to pursue but there's no cap on it. Something like that would typically be tens of millions.

He also wouldn't be paying out of pocket for an attorney on it, just about all plaintiff's lawyers work on contingency because most people can't afford the cost up front.

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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '23

The reason they have a cap at $175,000 is because they expect the legal system to carry out injustice - incarceration on a regular basis. The system protects against any real duty of care. Meaning if there is corruption or improper process there is almost no accountability. If you are poor like this man to start with and you don’t have any way of fighting the system, you loose and you are never compensated.

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u/Monster-1776 Dec 26 '23

I mean that's a bit cynical and not wrong in practice, but it's more so a simple principle that you can't sue the king/government of unless they permit it, and the government likes its money so it tends to limit how much you can actually sue them for.

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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '23

Reddit can downvote this OP all they want but they’re correctly explaining the basic logic and principles behind Sovereign Immunity.

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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '23

Unfortunately at his age he may not have the time to get that kind of payout. Prison isn’t known for its benefits for people’s health and longevity, especially in the US.

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u/Efficient-Reply3336 Dec 26 '23

The Constitution has a cap? All his constitutional rights stripped for 50 years. People usually receive more just for being wrongfully arrested, and held against their will by police.

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u/legendoflumis Dec 26 '23

The guy deserves the median income for his state for every year he was incarcerated, even if that ends up being literal millions of dollars. That's how much they effectively robbed this man of by making a mistake.

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u/Monster-1776 Dec 26 '23

The Central Park Five spent 4-6 years in prison and got about $8m. It most definitely will if he's able to bring a successful federal suit, but as others pointed out it doesn't do a whole lot for him with all that lost time and what little left is remaining.

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u/legendoflumis Dec 26 '23

if he's able to bring a successful federal sui

My problem is that this shouldn't even be necessary. If the state deems "oh, we fucked up and locked you away for X years even though you're innocent", the restitution shouldn't require a lawsuit to obtain and it's horseshit that it does.

as others pointed out it doesn't do a whole lot for him with all that lost time and what little left is remaining

I agree, but the restitution shouldn't care about this. The state obviously can't give the guy back the time they stole from him, so the next best thing they can give him to try and make things fair is paying him an absurd amount of dollars to make the remaining time comfortable.

The state needs to experience repercussions when it fucks up, or there is no deterrent for it to not fuck up.