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code_archeologist t1_j8n59jf wrote

Looks like he was fully exonerated instead of accepting an Alford Plea, and that leaves him open to sue the state for wrongful imprisonment. I hope he receives enough money to be set for the rest of his life.

And fuck those prosecutors who tried to keep him in prison, even after their witness recanted and an exculpatory witness confirmed his alibi. Prosecutors like that should be disbarred.

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chicken-bean t1_j8nejph wrote

Disbarred? I’d like to see them serving equal time to what they put the innocent through.

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sirbissel t1_j8nxtrt wrote

Dwight Warren

Also worth throwing in former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, as well as current Attorney General Andrew Bailey who both opposed St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner's attempts at getting a new trial for Johnson.

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preprandial_joint t1_j8o3608 wrote

> former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt

Now US Senator Eric Schmitt unfortunately.

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Draano t1_j8oaqjr wrote

> Now US Senator Eric Schmitt unfortunately.

It would be cool if someone on Meet the Press brought that up while interviewing him for some bill he's sponsoring.

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Karenomegas t1_j8oqxk4 wrote

Before the Bush administration we used to see stuff like that. I'm hoping the new blood in journalism will ignore that precedent.

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Prophet_Tehenhauin t1_j8s5n9q wrote

Problem is in '96 we decided, in the spirit of deregulation, to allow billionaires to buy up more media companies. So journalists don't often ask the hard questions anymore.

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Tsquared10 t1_j8nty6f wrote

> I hope he receives enough money to be set for the rest of his life.

Most states cap the damages for wrongful convictions. Looks like in MO it's up to 65k per year of imprisonment, so it'll max out to $1.82M.

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code_archeologist t1_j8nx7wk wrote

Statutory damage caps like that are questionable in their Constitutionality. Specifically in regards to the 1st amendment clause to a right to petition the government for a redress of grievances and the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.

By saying that the value to a person's suffering at the hands of the state is capped at $65k a year, it is effectively absolving the state of responsibility for the long term physical or emotional damage caused to that person by their incarceration, the cost of their legal representation, and the cost of them reestablishing themselves in a society that has moved on without them. A responsibility that the state is solely and wholly at fault for.

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Calavant t1_j8pie9i wrote

Unfortunately the Constitution only has as much power as we give it... and most of the time we only use it when it is convenient to the powers that be. If we don't defend our rights they don't exist.

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Bringbackdexter t1_j8wxi4b wrote

Yep, let enough go and eventually defending your rights will be considered a crime against the state.

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Bhimtu t1_j8ox8m9 wrote

Seriously -where are the consequences for these assholes who basically robbed a man of his life?

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An-Okay-Alternative t1_j8n7ink wrote

There'd be no prosecutors left. It's the system that's the problem, not bad apples.

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Merc931 t1_j8n8ldv wrote

Who do you think makes up the system?

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code_archeologist t1_j8nbp2z wrote

Much like in the police, the bad apples in the municipal prosecutors office weed out the junior lawyers who want to seek justice... until you have nothing but teams of jaded "factory workers" trying to churn out as many guilty pleas in a day as they can get and punishing anybody who attempts to prove their own innocence.

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Viper_JB t1_j8nj2m9 wrote

>trying to churn out as many guilty pleas in a day as they can get

Very disconcerting given the amount of private jails and prisons in the country. Guess there's a reason US has the largest amount of their population serving time.

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Palanawt t1_j8nofr7 wrote

Over 95% of prisoners in the US plead guilty. These prosecutors will trump up the charges so you're facing hundreds of years and then offer you a plea deal for like 5yrs. The public defender that has a dozen other cases to deal with that morning and doesn't know you from Adam is always gonna push you to take that deal. We have LOTS of innocent people in prison. And like others have said, it's a feature, not a bug.

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Taysir385 t1_j8o5n1w wrote

> These prosecutors will trump up the charges so you're facing hundreds of years and then offer you a plea deal for like 5yrs.

Friend of mine was once facing eight life sentences without parole. Accepted a plea bargain for time served. Which was admittedly like six months because he couldn't afford the million dollar bail, but that's not all that much better.

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Palanawt t1_j8ocear wrote

Jeez that's disgusting. We fail so hard at being decent humans in this country.

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Viper_JB t1_j8nqitg wrote

It's incredibly fucked up, guess the result of some many politicians promising to be though on crime. If you win a case like this does the state cover your legal costs?

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needabiggerhammer t1_j8o370c wrote

Nope. You are out the money.

And until last year your options to sue were limited (SCOTUS fixed that a bit).

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KeepAwaySynonym t1_j8noqbj wrote

While one prison being private is too many....

There is a total of 158 total private prisons holding single digit percentage of the US prison population... thats out of a total of 1,566 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2,850 county jails and 1,510 juvenile correctional facilities.

Private prison numbers from: https://study.com/learn/lesson/how-many-private-prisons-are-in-the-us.html

Total number here:

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html

The discussions around private prisons makes it seem like it's a significant chunk... while one is too many, it's not enough.

Remember to contact your elected reps to end state contracting to private prisons!

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Chknbone t1_j8n8ufi wrote

Bad apples.

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PopPopPete t1_j8nvl7w wrote

Bad apples are born from unhealthy trees

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kizzle69 t1_j8oky78 wrote

Bad apples are born from neglect and lack of care from those who are supposed to be taking care of the trees. And 99 out of 100 times, the problem is fixed at the roots.

The only way change is ever going to happen is if people actually start paying attention to their local politics and improve their areas. These things are happening because everyone focuses on a few people at the federal level and completely neglects their local politics. So people who shouldn't be in office, thrive there. The idea of putting all the responsibility on a few people at the federal level is never going to fix things.

Gotta fix the problem from the ground up, not the top down.

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NihilisticPollyanna t1_j8nfkar wrote

That whole tree is rotted through to the core.

Gotta uproot the whole thing, scorch the soil, and start over new.

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phungus_mungus t1_j8pwce1 wrote

> Prosecutors like that should be disbarred.

Disbarred?

They should rot away in prison with no chance of ever getting out.

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TheExpandingMind t1_j8nj9ou wrote

> Prosecutors like that should be disbarred.

Prosecutors like that should gain a unique perspective, of the "Oh that's what that looks like when divorced from myself" variety.

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somabeach t1_j8ruqem wrote

It's endemic to the system unfortunately. Prosecutors would rather uphold false convictions than tarnish their perfect records.

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Squire_II t1_j8oe1vb wrote

> Prosecutors like that should be disbarred.

Prosecutors like that should spend the rest of their lives in prison. Same with any judges who help deny justice.

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ExtensionNoise9000 t1_j8o203t wrote

After they knowingly tried to keep the innocent man locked up???

They should be executed at the very least, 28 years in prison and finish it off with an execution.

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Dic3dCarrots t1_j8njdyw wrote

I am whole sale against execution, but in a case of such treason, I feel the prosecutor should be drawn and quartered

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vikingsquad t1_j8njve1 wrote

That’s not what treason is.

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Dic3dCarrots t1_j8nriix wrote

There also exists the word treason, outside of the crime. I don't mean capital punishment, I mean they should be thrown to the mob

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Fine-Will t1_j8nr68u wrote

So you're against execution if we disregard all the scenarios where you're all for it. Got it.

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Dic3dCarrots t1_j8nrnrb wrote

I mean they should be thrown to the mob. Not an action of the state, they deserve to be torn from limb to limb.

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Fine-Will t1_j8nsq00 wrote

Okay now I am intrigued. Where is this angry mob you speak off that is just waiting to tear people from limb from limb? What type of people is it compromised of? Is there a selection process?

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Dic3dCarrots t1_j8nzevu wrote

Nope, the reason I used high falutin language was that comment wasn't meant to be read as a serious purposal, simply an expression of rage and grief. This article literally had me tearing up at work this morning.

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