Posted on 05/17/2007 6:10:58 PM PDT by Graybeard58
HARTFORD -- An apologetic House of Representatives voted unanimously Wednesday to give $5 million to James C. Tillman, an East Hartford man wrongly imprisoned for more than 18 years for a rape that DNA evidence proved he did not commit.
Moved by Tillman's humbleness and lack of bitterness over his ordeal, lawmakers said they hoped the money will give him an opportunity to live out the rest of his life with relative comfort. The bill passed 148-0.
"I think we all wonder, could we be so kind and gentle and humble as we find this person," asked Rep. Kenneth Green, D-Hartford. "He did not deserve to be incarcerated or 18-and-a-half years -- $5 million is the least that we can do."
House members gave Tillman and his mother, Katherine Martin Tillman, a standing ovation after the vote. His mother wiped away tears as she and her son, who walks with a slight limp, were led to the House Speaker's dais and waved to the lawmakers.
"We can remove the knife that was placed in James's back and we can begin the healing process," said Rep. Douglas McCrory, D-Hartford.
The bill was immediately sent to the Senate. It was unclear whether the Senate would take it up on Wednesday.
Tillman, who was 26 when he was arrested, was sentenced to 45 years in prison after being convicted of raping and beating a woman in downtown Hartford in 1988. The victim identified him, but Tillman was exonerated last summer after DNA tests showed he could not have been the attacker.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell, earlier this year, proposed $500,000 in compensation. And a rival bill, approved Tuesday by the legislature's Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, would give Tillman $3.5 million paid out over the rest of his life. But House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, assured Tillman the $5 million sum would prevail.
Rell said it was up to the legislature to set a dollar amount. She said she would be honored to sign the bill.
"How do you put a price tag on someone's time in prison for a crime that he did not commit," asked Rell, who first put forth the idea of compensating Tillman when she unveiled her budget proposal in February.
Tillman's lawyer, Gerard A. Smyth, said his client believes the $5 million is fair compensation for what he has endured. It will also help him avoid any lengthy legal challenges. Tillman had filed legal claims against the state regarding his wrongful imprisonment.
Those claims will now be withdrawn.
Smyth is representing Tillman pro bono. He said similar cases typically result in settlements of about $1 million for each year of incarceration, he said.
Even though he's been out of a maximum-security prison for nearly a year, Tillman, 45, said he is still awed by his newfound freedom.
"I woke up this morning and heard the birds and it was beautiful," he said. "It's just a blessing for me to be free."
More than 20 states and the federal government provide compensation to the wrongfully convicted, according to information provided to a state Advisory Commission on Wrongful Convictions. There is another bill before the Connecticut legislature that would create a panel to come up with a compensation system.
Rep. William Dyson, D-New Haven, said Tillman's exoneration should also compel lawmakers to abolish the death penalty this session if they want to make sure that someone wrongfully convicted is not executed in this state.
Well, because taxpayers, or at least their agent, wrongly imprisoned him for 18 years. How do you value 18 years either way?
Then why do we pay enlistment and re-enlistment bonuses? If some aren't doing it for the money, then they would enlist or re-enlist without the bonus. The fact that it takes a bonus to increase the rates of elistment/re-enlistment indicates that the money is a factor for some people to enlist/re-enlist.
That's the only monkey in the works. I'd only do it if I knew for certain the outcome. Still, I think $5 million is excessive. He's not the only one ever falsely imprisoned for 18 years, but so far he's the only one to receive that kind of money for it.
Ok, so give him $20 million, with such a rationale. CT taxpayers didn't wrongly imprison him. The City of Hartford, prosecutor and jury did. CT does not have counties. I see no reason this should come out of general state revenues. Also, DNA techniques were lousy back then and are much improved now, so is it fair to say they bungled it so badly?
Because he was prosecuted by the PEOPLE OF CT!
In other words, the General State resources were used to convict him on behalf of the citizens of the State.
Man wrongly jailed for three years charged £7,000 by Home Office for 'board and lodging'
Wrongly jailed after a woman cried rape, Warren Blackwell applied for compensation for his three wasted years in prison.Torn from his family and sent to languish in jail as a convicted sex attacker, the innocent father-of-two imagined he was due a hefty sum for the miscarriage of justice.
Instead, he was flabbergasted to learn the Home Office now intends to charge him nearly £7,000 for "board and lodging".
FreedomCalls has stated his price for his Freedom and it is 23k a month.
That is very low price not to have been with your wife, kids, grandkids or even having the chance to bring new children into this world.
But now that you have agreed on a price for 18 years of Freedom would you do 18 years in prison for $3,000,000?
Seems a bit excessive to me. I’d do 18 years in prison for a guarantee of $5 million — that’s $278,000 a year, or $23,000 a month, or $5,342 a week, or $133 an hour for a 40-hour work week or $32 an hour for every actual hour he was incarcerated. I’m sure others would too if it were offered at that rate. Our soldiers in Iraq offer their lives for a lot less after all — though most don’t do it for the money alone of course.
You must be kidding. I would definitely not do it for five million. Yes I have been to Iraq but for six months at a time. I know they are longer now, but still you had some freedoms. I have been in 20 years and seems like a long time. I just hear to many horror stories about jail. Have you ever seen that show OZ? Yieks! I saw one episode almost by accident...no thank you.
The dead have no freedoms. On Memorial Day at least of all days, you should recognize that a lot of good men gave their lives so you could be free. They willingly gave up not 18 years of imprisonment, but their lives.
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
WTF!
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