Wrongly convicted man gets $6.3 million from city (Chicago)

[sabra]

Source: Chicago Trib

The City Council agreed today to pay $6.3 million to a man wrongly imprisoned for a quarter-century in a Chicago rape case.

Jerry Miller, who turned 52 today, was an honorably discharged military veteran with a good work record and no criminal background when he was arrested in 1981 and charged with a brutal beating, robbery and rape.

Based on faulty eyewitness location, he was convicted. While on parole in 2007, DNA testing determined another man had committed the crime. Miller has since been pardoned.

The DNA implicated a serial rapist who could not be charged because the statute of limitations had expired.

In his lawsuit against the city, Miller alleged the Chicago Police crime laboratory withheld evidence that would have cleared him even before trial. The lab has since been disbanded.

That evidence, based on extracting blood-type data from semen, would have shown Miller could not have committed the crime, according to a highly regarded forensic scientist who would have testified at the civil trial, had it gone forward.

Read more: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2010/06/wrongly-convicted-man-gets-63-million-from-city.html

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Read more about his case @ the Innocence Project: http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/530.php

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. A year in the life is worth $250K.

I'm happy it's been quantified.

[Jumping John]

3. So do you think that amount would be the same for a white person? n/t

[activa8tr]

8. With an name like "Jerry Miller" how do you know his race?

And what is your point, even if he is non-white?

[Jumping John]

11. I looked for evidence of his

blackness

"With an name like "Jerry Miller" how do you know his race?"

I felt that he was probably a black man before I researched the fact that he is indeed a black man. I know that the system is always geared to slam the poor and the the poor minority moreso.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/533.php

http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/04/20/jerry-miller/

"And what is your point, even if he is non-white?"

Only that the system is unjustly geared to slam down the poor and especially the poor minority. But I can not tell you how much more the amount would probably have been for a white person.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8659452

[Kweli4Real]

13. I think his point was ...

There is a distinct devaluation of people of color in this nation. Oh ... you were being facetious, right?

[FiveGoodMen]

2. Be nice if they took some of that money from the prosecutor and jury that wrongly convicted him!

The reasonable doubt standard is very important.

[LisaL]

4. The jury isn't liable for the wrong verdict and never has been.

And frankly I don't see why anyone would agree to serve on a jury if the jury were to be held liable for a wrong verdict, either way.

[FiveGoodMen]

5. Ah, but it's so easy for them to ruin another life just to get a feel-good moment.

(I didn't say that the law made the jury liable, just that maybe it should)

[superconnected]

12. I suspect they really believed he was guitly - it may be a racist belief - ie. He's black so he's

guilty. But I doubt they did it for a "feel good moment".

[LisaL]

14. It should? Really?

Who exactly is going to agree to serve on juries if the jurors are liable for wrong verdicts?
You talk about potentially owning someone millions.

[FiveGoodMen]

15. Don't you think their verdicts would be more circumspect?

Illinois has (or else had) a moratorium on the death penalty when it was shown that over 50% of their death-row inmates were innocent.

[proteus_lives]

20. Then good luck ever getting anyone to show-up for jury duty.

:eyes:

[cstanleytech]

10. Agreed.

You cant blame a jury for a conviction if they didn't know the evidence wasn't reliable.

[cosmicone]

6. Prosecutors and cops who deliberately withhold exculpatory evidence

should be automatically sentenced to the maximum sentence their accused faced or would have faced. This would stop a lot of prosecutorial and police shenanigans.

[FiveGoodMen]

7. I like that idea.

[Divine Discontent]

9. excellent idea. +1

[truedelphi]

17. Oh I like it. n/t

[Heywood J]

18. Couple this with seizing their assets to pay the relief for

their victims and I'd support it. There's no reason they should profit from a crime any more than the people they go after in the courtroom. Bank accounts, houses, cars, and other high-dollar assets should all be fair game.

[Blue_Tires]

19. +1000

that's what I wanted to see happen in that Nebraska case....

[truebrit71]

21. Agreed 100000%

..

[truedelphi]

16. The jury can hardly be blamed if the evidence was withheld.

I'd like to see the prosecution fined for this one, or even given a bit of jail time.