Sunday, November 28, 2010
To Pay or Not to Pay--That is the Question
Exonerated Texans are eligible for $80,000 per year of wrongful imprisonment. Personally, I believe that is a bit high but understandable. The state comptroller is slashing payments to some exonerated Texans who have prior convictions because of the way the law is interpreted. In particular, Ronald Taylor spent 14 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit. After he was exonerated on DNA evidence, he expected a hefty payment from the state. Instead of the $1.12 Million he was expecting, he was offered $20,000. Since Taylor was on parole for another crime when he was wrongfully sentenced for the rape, his parole was revoked and his sentence imposed The comptroller's office views that as concurrent time served and subtracted the concurrent service money from their offer to him after exoneration. Since Taylor was exonerated on the wrongful rape charges, his parole should never have been revoked and his sentence for his prior crime should have never started. The law is open to interpretation though, which is causing all the problems. The final outcome will be how the Texas Supreme Court interprets parole. Is parole merely a continuation of a criminal sentence that is served outside of prison or does the sentence end when parole begins and the inmate leaves prison. Since the first sentence should never have been imposed, I don't believe it is fair to take away the money owed to Taylor because of the time he spent in prison on the first crime. Taking the money away just seems cruel. To me, it seems like the comptroller is just trying to save a little money. I think they know they are in the wrong.
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I wrote my stage 8 critique on Chris’ Blog “To Pay or Not to Pay—That is the Question”. This title caught my attention and could not pass this up. It caught my eye and this article did as well. The average NON -Degreed employee with the State of Texas, men and women that get up and actually work everyday earn on average less than $45,000 a year. Many of them are worried that their jobs will not be here in another year but we are going to pay previously convicted criminals money that only someone with a college education would earn, sheer generous. I understand that they should be compensated for being wrongly convicted but why not what an average worker would earn, these guys had 3 hots and a cot, free medical plus the opportunity for an education and vocational training while inside. They deserve something but not $80,000 per year.
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