Posted on 02/23/2014 6:17:57 AM PST by lowbridge
A man who was framed by a rogue detective and served 23 years in prison for a murder he did not commit will receive $6.4 million from the City of New York in a settlement that came before a civil rights lawsuit was even filed, lawyers involved in the case said on Thursday.
A $150 million claim filed last year by the man, David Ranta, was settled by the city comptroller’s office without ever involving the city’s legal department — which the lawyers involved in the negotiations described as a “groundbreaking” decision that acknowledged the overwhelming evidence the city faced.
The comptroller’s quick acceptance of liability in the high-profile conviction is also significant because the case is the first of what is expected to be a series of wrongful conviction claims by men who were sent to prison based on the flawed investigative work of the detective, Louis Scarcella, who has been accused of inventing confessions, coercing witnesses and recycling informers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2564769/Father-three-wrongfully-imprisoned-23-years-framed-murder-rogue-detective-gets-6-4-million-settlement.html
Watch for a new cottage industry: Wrongful Imprisonment. Take the rap for somebody else and hit the jackpot. There are a lot of folks who would willingly trade ten or so years of “imprisonment” for millions of dollars in settlement money from any city state or federal entity. Kind of like selling a kidney on the open market. And who is to say that’s not what happened here?
Ah. The Dinkins administration. 4 years of hell soon to be overshadowed by the de Blasio admin. Wait till Holders people decide to do the Crown heights fun fest again and all the Brooklyn Progressives crap their pants and try to find a new ‘Rudy’ for 2017 to protect their worthless @$$e$
I’ll go out on a limb and say that isn’t what happened here.
Go into a prison and there’s no guarantee you’ll ever come out...
Taxpayers tote the note (again) for corruption.
That’s not enough !
Why do you say “imprisonment”? Didn’t he spend those years in a real prison?
“There are a lot of folks who would willingly trade ten or so years of “imprisonment” for millions of dollars in settlement money..”
Well, that’s an interesting concept, but without reading the article I doubt it applies here.
First off this guy was in jail for over 20 years, nobody’s going to want to do that much time as a ‘substitute’ convict.
Secondly, cops get false confessions all the time, part of the job is to ensure they DON’T arrest/convict innocent people.
I’m pretty sure that, sad as it is to say, we’ve got a bigger problem with corrupt/inept workers in the Justice system than we have with people seeking to do time falsely so they can sue later.
I’m really not even sure that anyone HAS ever done that.
What about the rogue detective? Seems to me in would only be fair that he get sent up the river for 23 years.
I believe you are right that some would give up a certain number of years of freedom for a jackpot.
Here is a personal story. I taught real estate law and econ in college for 10 years. Almost all of the students were real estate licensees, who needed the classes to get a broker’s license.
A local scumbag mortgage broker had ripped off elderly people by taking their money and making them believe they were getting a 2nd trust deed on a home. He did not have the documents recorded, so there were many people who made the loan on the same property. Of course, the house of cards ultimately fell, people lost their money, and he was caught. I think he had run off to Hawaii with his secretary.
Whether they ever recovered his stolen money, I do not know, but I think he did five years in a country club prison for white collar crime.
One of my students kind of mumbled that 5 mil for 5 years would be worth it if he could actually get away with the money. So I asked my students, in a class of about 40, how many would consider doing this if they were sure they would get the money. Half of them raised their hand. It was quite enlightening.
For perhaps all of us participating on FR, that scenario is unfathomable. First, we would not give up our freedom for any amount of money. And equally important, we would not cheat people.
NOTE: unfortunately, since the advent of the Obamanation, we slowly are giving up our freedom. It is just not behind bars. Yet.
A vile and dirty cop pulls this kind of crap and you come up with this angle?
An interesting bit near the end “After Mr. Ranta’s release, an investigation by The New York Times found that Mr. Scarcella had used the same witness in several different murder cases...”
That’s pretty suspicious, or else that witness is someone to avoid. Where ever he goes a murder breaks out.
Corruption is as corruption does and LEO’s lead the pack.
From my experience with the TN justice system I can say you are very accurate in your beliefs.
Probation & Parolee’s
https://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/ppvsp91.txt
This is an older study as there are no newer ones, this gives you a big idea of just how many additional early release of criminals to parole and probation cause. n 1991, 45% of State prisoners were persons who, at the time they
committed their offense, were under conditional supervision in the community—either on probation or on parole. They then committed an additional 74,400 new crimes. Their original crimes add up to 25,900. The NEW crimes FAR out ceded their REPEAT CRIMES.
Based on the offense that brought them to prison, the 162,000 probation violators committed at least 6,400 murders, 7,400 rapes, 10,400 assaults, and 17,000 robberies, while under supervision in the community an
average of 17 months.
Based on the offense that brought parolees back to prison, these 156,000 offenders committed at least 6,800 murders, 5,500 rapes, 8,800 assaults, and 22,500 robberies, while under supervision in the community an average of 13 months.
Word of caution, crime is not counted accurately. More of our governments fuzzy math tricks. It is Hierarchical Counted, only the most serious crime is counted if there were actually 4 crimes committed at the time. Kidnap, rape, rob then kill a person, only the murder counts. Rest flushed down the toilet.
Recidivism
http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=17
These offenders had accumulated 4.1 million arrest charges before their most recent imprisonment and another 744,000 charges within 3 years of release.
Please help this 8 year old little girl get the justice she was promised by 2 juries. TN Gov email is bill.haslam@tn.gov
END THE SENSELESS APPEALS PROCESS!
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/dec/20/millington-death-row-inmate-loses-bid-to-reopen/?print=1
This is going on 20 years of appeals. DNA & confession proved he did it.
He raped, strangled to death with her OWN SHOE LACES Nicki Read and then threw her body in the river. Even helped hunt for what was thought to be a missing child. The INJUSTICE system does not give a flip how much money or grief it causes the victim’s family to have this crap delayed and delayed, and then finally some anti-death penalty justice will void the sentence and give life with parole, which means more grief to fight the suckers. And criminals have MORE rights that the victim or victim’s family!
Governor Bill Halsam has yet to set a date or sign the death warrant, ask him how long Nicki’s mom has to wait for justice.
bill.haslam@tn.gov
Murder in Memphis. http://truecrimebookreviews.com/2011/06/murder-in-memphis-dorris-porch-rebecca-easley-deborah-william-groseclose/ This creep hired men to murder his young wife. Let them into the house, while he slipped out with the kids. She was Raped, stabbed, beatened, strangled until she passed out. Stuffed into the trunk of her car, which was then relocated down town, where she is still alive, she COOKED TO DEATH in the 100 + summer temps of Memphis. A anti-death penalty federal judge and 2 state supreme court judges kept blocking the use of the DP. They finally were retried, found guilty again, and given Life WITH parole. There is 1 sick sister left to fight the parole hearings.
THIS IS A ON GOING HATE CRIME. Black on White. Best have a very strong stomach to read it.
The Gruesome Story of a Murdered Tennessee Couple You May Have Never Heard – But That You Will Never Forget
http://www.knoxnews.com/photos/galleries/sets/channon-christian-and-chris-newsom-murders/
You cant be serious. Few, if any, would trade their freedom and undergo rape and subhuman treatment for money with no guarantee they would ever get out.
Would you rather those falsely imprisoned get an apology or perhaps a hallmark greeting card? “Oops, our bad, sorry for the decade of rape and torture.” Maybe they can be awarded a business card to a Christian organization like the idiots that go to restaurants and leave them as tips.
Your attempt to minimize the reality of false imprisonment is nothing short of hysterics. It happens and it is beyond immoral. Maybe he should have been put to death so people like you can sit comfortable in your denial and the State, with its corrupt players and politicians, can keep their image and careers in tact like Rick Perry and Gregg Abbott. Perry did, afterall, allow Texas to put a man to death on shady evidence while his butt boy Abbott assisted in the cover up before an election.
For the record, I am talking about Cameron Todd Willingham and the Texas Forensic Science Review Board. Forensic Science in parts of Texas is so screwed up and backwards that we need a commission to review it. Houston alone has been rocked by multiple scandals involving their fingerprint and DNA collection.
Similar situation occurred recently in Massachusetts where an employee in the crime lab falsified drug testing results in hundreds of cases. She basically randomly decided each case (drug / not drugs), and wrote up her results. She cranked out lab results about 10x faster than any of her colleagues, who thought something was odd and tried to have the higher ups check it out. The higher-ups didn't care. the result; hundreds of convictions were overturned due to her tainted testing. Millions lost in wasted prosecutions.
Take the money out of the detective’s pension.
Should we get rid of freedom too simply because the evil exploit it? Dumping the appeals process because evil uses it to their advantage it is like dumping the second amendment because bad people use guns. That’s liberal logic. Freedom is not free and one of the consequences is that bad people will use it against the good. If you are willing to throw it away, what else are you willing to give up in the name of convenience?
The appeals process is about protecting the potentially innocent from overzealous, or down right corrupt, prosecution. Does your morality allow for innocents to suffer so you can “get the bad guy”? What happened in that case is truly awful and horrific but creating more victims hardly serves her memory. Evil often gains the upper hand in a free society and that is the price we pay for such a luxury.
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