Just give them the entire county.
“property taxes”
Why don’t they start by taking it out of the pensions of those who screwed up?
Dissolve the country Government. Sell all of the buildings and equipment. Pay up. Put the country under the control of the state.
Let the citizenry install (on their own dime) water wells and septic system. Let them form groups if they desire and grade roads.
After they make themselves solvent again, they can look at becoming incorporated.
Speaking from Grayson County, Texas this absolutely needs to be done with McLennan County.
I live in Gage county about 7 miles from Beatrice, personally I think 28 million divided by 6 people who spent in excess of 20 years in prison each for a crime they didnt commit isn’t really enough. The county probably spent 5 million in legal fees fighting this.
There are people who will never believe these people aren’t guilty no matter the evidence. There people like that even when someone else confesses. Just like with Bill Clinton. A woman was told that Clinton had admitted he’d had an affair with Jennifer Flowers. Her response? “I still don’t believe it.”
And cops and DA’s will NEVER admit they had the wrong guy.
People get all the justice they can afford...little money, little justice...That is our legal system.
A few questions: I wonder how many of the current 22,000 residents lived there and were 18 years old or older in 1985? And aren’t murder charges state charges? Are murder charges different from county to county?
Probably just need to declare bankruptcy. Let a bankruptcy judge sort it out.
“None of us were living aboveboard lives,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “We were all partyers. We were all basically chemically induced idiots."
This happened in my hometown and I know/knew many of the involved parties. Tom Winslow (one of the accused) was in my high school class. Helen Wilson (the lady who was murdered) lived next door to my mom and the murder took place in the apartment next door to where my mom had lived. My mom had moved out of the building about a year before the murders. She used to have coffee with Helen and was quite upset when she was killed. I met Helen a few times and she was a very nice lady.
Jerry DeWitt (the county sheriff who was part of the investigation) was one of my Dad’s golfing buddies. A very good guy who let my sister get out of a couple of high school run ins with the law when he was a Nebraska State Patrolman. Bud Searcy (the main investigator and a sheriffs deputy who forced the confessions) was another guy I knew as a kid as well. I had a few interactions with him during my youthful scrapes with the law and he was always very nice.
All that being said, I am very sorry for what happened to those folks and am just sick that this all took place in my home town and was perpetrated by people I knew and liked. It is a real black eye for Gage county and real travesty of justice.
This crime happened in 1985. If anyone is at all financially liable it would be anyone still alive who lived in that county in 1985. Certainly not the current residents. What these people are looking for is called reparations. Certainly the current county residents are in no way responsible for what happened nearly 30 years ago
The county doesn’t carry liability insurance? The exonerated should get damages, but why should innocent residents be liable?
So the DNA implicated only one guy, but somehow at the time they thought it took six people to accomplish?
Neeeeeext!
If the judge, prosecutor and anyone else who is responsible for this is still alive I’d say that pitchforks and torches would be called for.
Prosecutor misconduct seems to be a growing problem that needs to be harshly discouraged.
All the Public Employees and Public Servants involved in this case should bear the first strike and be Immediately Liquidated Permanently