Thomas Doswell, who was freed last week after being wrongfully incarcerated for 20 years, won't receive any type of financial compensation.
Posted on 08/07/2005 4:17:56 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Only 20 states compensate those wrongfully jailed
More than a century of Pennsylvania jurisprudence separates Thomas Doswell and Andrew Toth, but the two have much in common.
Thomas Doswell, who was freed last week after being wrongfully incarcerated for 20 years, won't receive any type of financial compensation.
Both spent nearly 20 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit, Doswell for a 1986 East End rape and Toth for a murder in 1891 at the Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock.
Both were exonerated by new evidence, Doswell by DNA and Toth by a dying man's confession half a world away.
Both relied on family and religion behind bars, and both forgave those who put them there.
"They have a job to do," Doswell said Wednesday of Pittsburgh police, after becoming the first person in Allegheny County exonerated by DNA evidence.
"I hold nothing against the men who put me in prison, though they did me wrong," wrote Toth, when he got out of Western Penitentiary in 1911. "But, oh, I am glad to be free again."
These men share something else, too.
Neither got a dime from the state that imprisoned them.
Doswell received a couple of $1,000 checks this week from private citizens, including one from a former state Supreme Court justice who called him a remarkable man and said, "I am truly sorry for what happened to you."
For his part, Toth received a $40-a-month pension from his former employer, Andrew Carnegie, who was bothered by the case.
Although 20 states and the federal government provide some form of compensation for the wrongly convicted, Pennsylvania doesn't -- even though it was Toth's case that helped raise awareness across the country that men in his position need help.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Thomas Doswell, who was freed last week after being wrongfully incarcerated for 20 years, won't receive any type of financial compensation.
Money can't buy back the years...but it sure can make his remaining ones easier...Some kind of trust, so he doesn't blow it all....
I agree that money can't buy back years, but you have to be able to get your life back together and a statement of "you're free, go home" or "my bad" doesn't cut it.
So who does he sue? The jury/judge?
It would be hard for anyone to start fresh after 20 years locked away from life, these cases deserve a helping hand.
Most likely we will wind up with a bill for 20 years worth of room and board.
Japanese Americans who were held during WWII received compensation.
I found this to be the most outrageous part of the story. I'm sure it is tricky to decide just how much compensation to give to the wrongly jailed, who should pay, and how the circumstances of each case should affect the amount of compensation. But to not even give these guys any help with adjusting to freedom is inexcusable.
The D.A., police investigative unit, and FBI crime lab if they played any role in the conviction. You need a bunch of evidence to convict.
Seeing that it was PA it was probably a crooked DA and cops.
The state should step up and give him money for a new start. They owe him & should do what they would want done for a member of their own family caught in a similar travesty......there is state money for education grants, business tax incentives, celebrations & bonuses & hoopla. In this case, they have an opportunity to mend a terrible wrong.
1891 ???
to 1911 ???
They are comparing this recent case with one from a century ago.
OIC.
Thanks.
I'd say at a bare minimum, a new car, a decent place to live and income for life, at taxpayer's expense...
He could blow it all, or do whatever, as long it comes out of the hide of the prosecutor that railroaded him. Seize his property for the compensation.
Why?
Do you honestly think there was no misconduct by police or prosecutors? Why should the taxpayers pay?
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