WELLINGTON — A New Zealand man who spent nearly 18 years in prison for a murder he did not commit will receive a multimillion-dollar compensation package, the government said on Friday (Aug 18).
That is 26$/h spent in prison. Take that for what you will, but it's hard for me to define how to compensate someone fairly for wrongful imprisonment. Money comes, money goes, but time only passes. It won't come back.
Courts have a really hard time admitting to any wrongdoing. When someone innocent gets released, they see it as a loss, because they don't care about justice. They decided this man was guilty for whatever reason, and a win for them would have been to keep him imprisoned. His innocence is irrelevant to their decision.
On one hand, it's not nearly enough. Nobody would voluntarily give away that much of their life for that much money, which is the standard they should use. OTOH, I'm surprised he got anything at all, because I've never heard of a government that would voluntarily admit any kind of liability for wrongful convictions.