Should wrongfully imprisoned people get compensation?

[sailor]

Well, I am spending a lot of time and finding very little. I could find nothing about this from the EU but I am not familiar with the EU structure and maybe I just do not knwo where to look.

In Spain the Constitution provides for compensation by the State for any harm suffered by a person as a consequence of acts of the state:

Article 106 (2) Private individuals, under the terms established by the law, shall have the right to be indemnified for any harm they suffer in any of their property and rights, except in the cases of force majeure, whenever such harm is the result of the functioning of the public services.

For example, a man serving time in prison suffered injuries at the hands of other inmates and, based on this article, the courts ruled the state was obligated to compensate him for the injuries suffered. So compensation for imprisonment of an innocent person seems to be a particular case of a much wider principle: an individual who suffers harm by the normal functioning of the government is entitled to compensation.

[RTFirefly]

*Originally posted by PunditLisa *
**Of course wrongfully imprisoned people should get compensation. “The system” robbed someone of his/her freedom – in some cases for decades. I just don’t think an “Oops, We’re sorry.” is sufficient.

Sometimes a mistaken conviction is the result of a genuine mistake – a victim misidentifying the man who raped her, for instance. It wasn’t the jurors’ fault and it was the victim’s fault and it wasn’t the d.a.'s fault that the wrong man went to jail. It was simply a mistake. But a mistake nonetheless. So we should do the best to rectify the mistake. First by publicly admitting the mistake and apologizing to the person who paid dearly for the mistake. Secondly by expunging his conviction. Thirdly by giving him a substantial sum of money.

In the instances where it is found that the DA’s office deliberately suppressed evidence that would have been helpful to the defense, the wrongly convicted person should get all of the remedies above, plus a substantial punitive damage. And anyone who knowingly suppressed evidence should lose his/her job.

Justice is supposed to be fair. **

What Lisa said. I can’t improve on that in the least.

[Grrr]

Just had to chime in to say; If we can spend 10 million on a craper for the space shuttle, I think we could find the money from somewhere… I mean come on!

[istara]

I think they should be compensated, and hugely. From a government fund.

Frankly, anyone that has spent 20 years of their life in prison for a crime they didn’t commit deserves AT LEAST a multi-million pound/dollar pay-out.