New Zealand man wrongly jailed for 18 years wins S$4m payout
New Zealand man wrongly jailed for 18 years wins S$4m payout
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).
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“Wins”, really? That’s a disgusting way of putting it. He’s compensated for time spent in prison, but the time will be forever lost.
Not to mention that, while objectively a lot of money to most people, $4m is a piss-poor compensation for 18 years of your life!
That is 26$/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.
Yeah, $26/h is a good rate for work wages, but not for losing a major chunk of your life and the resulting trauma from it. Contrary to some "tough guy" portrayals in fiction, your psyche and relationship with society WILL be forever fractured from being caged for so long , no matter how you were before.
I wouldn't wish that on GUILTY prisoners, let alone someone who was wrongfully convicted like in this case.
Yeah it really is hard to quantify. Even just taking into account the financial aspect if he was working during that time he would have been developing skills and becoming worth more to employ as well. He's effectively 18 years behind career and skills wise where he could have been.
EDIT: shit, it's even worse than that.
"Alan was 24 when he was arrested. He is now 61."
It also said he had an intellectual disability. I don't know how severe it is but being a convicted murderer for most of your life would Rob you of so many opportunities. Fucking hell.
I was confused at first because 61 - 24 isn't 18, but then realized he did have a length of time out on parole before he was sent back for violating parole.
It works out about $15 US or £12 or €14 p.h.
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It's not even 2.4 million USD. That's not nearly enough.
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.