# Wrongful Conviction and Compensation. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 31, 2007, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrongful-conviction-and-compensation/417639 "2007-08-31T17:33:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Carnacki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@Carnacki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnacki)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrongful-conviction-and-compensation/417639/21 "2007-09-04T18:03:24Z")
[QUOTE=Micro Dot] The main reason officials involved have no remorse is that the inmates are often career criminals that are dangerous to the public. They have access to the arrest records that the press does not, so they can see all the things that never went to trial. A guy may be guilty of assault and robbery, plea bargain for fencing stolen goods, and when that is overturned on a technicality he’s “innocent” but the cops know better. IMHO [/QUOTE] I think using the words “guilty” and “innocent” here is imprecise. I believe what you meant was that the officials involved somehow “know” that the defendant committed certain crimes that they are unable to prove in a court of law – but that doesn’t equal “guilty”. Similarly, when a conviction is overturned, he’s not “innocent”, he’s “not guilty”. But it seems like this argument would lead to a conclusion that whenever officials believe that a defendant committed a crime, but don’t have the evidence to prove them guilty in a court of law, that it’s ok for them to go to jail anyhow? How much do we trust these “officials” of whom you speak? ---
**Author:** ![Micro\_Dot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Micro\_Dot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Micro_Dot)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2007, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrongful-conviction-and-compensation/417639/22 "2007-09-04T18:56:15Z")
Usually, more than I trust the people who are trying to get them compensation. They may just be journalists wanting to make a saint out of a sinner because it’s better copy. ---
**Author:** ![Micro\_Dot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Micro\_Dot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Micro_Dot)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2007, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrongful-conviction-and-compensation/417639/23 "2007-09-04T18:59:13Z")
Besides, I wasn’t commenting on whether the claims should be paid, just why the officials might not feel remorse if they didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrongful-conviction-and-compensation/417639/24 "2007-09-04T20:10:42Z")
[QUOTE=Micro Dot] The main reason officials involved have no remorse is that the inmates are often career criminals that are dangerous to the public. [/QUOTE] Are you talking about the population of exonerees or the population of convicted felons, or some other population? > [@](#): > > They have access to the arrest records that the press does not, so they can see all the things that never went to trial. A guy may be guilty of assault and robbery, plea bargain for fencing stolen goods, and when that is overturned on a technicality he’s “innocent” but the cops know better. > IMHO In most cases of exoneration, they’ve done their best (or worst) to get a conviction. If they know of other “secret” evidence, they’ve tried to use it and had it rejected. I will agree, though, that some of them probably think they know better, and some probably assume everyone they encounter is guilty. That would explain some cases of official indifference. But Hornoff’s case is especially salient in this regard. He was a police detective. He wasn’t a career criminal. In fact, a court ordered the police department that had employed him to reinstate him, an order the deprtment continues to fight. [http://dreierbaritz.com/assets/attachments/60.pdf](http://dreierbaritz.com/assets/attachments/60.pdf) (Actually, the case may have been resolved through mediation.) ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2007, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrongful-conviction-and-compensation/417639/25 "2007-09-04T20:22:58Z")
[QUOTE=Gfactor] (Actually, the case may have been resolved through mediation.) [/QUOTE] Yes. > [@](#): > > Two weeks ago, Hornoff, who turned 44 yesterday, settled his more than four-year-old dispute with the city when he agreed to receive $600,000 as compensation for his wrongful imprisonment and physical injury due to his wrongful imprisonment, thereby absolving the city from his civil suit still pending against the state. In addition, Hornoff was reinstated as a Warwick police detective (from which he then retired) and will be given a $1,848 bi-weekly medical disability pension and health coverage for him and his family. > > He waived all back pay awarded by Judge Joseph Rodgers in early 2004, which the city appealed, an amount in excess of $500,000 and which would have grown to about $750,000 in the two-and-a-half years since the parties were waiting for the Rhode Island Supreme Court to hear the city’s appeal. [NameBright - Coming Soon](http://truthinjustice.org/hornoff-settle.htm) But > [@](#): > > In a nutshell, Hornoff and his ex-wife, Rhonda Goula, are at odds over how much of his $600,000 settlement from the city of Warwick should go to her. The two were divorced while Hornoff was wrongfully imprisoned for the 1989 murder of Victoria Cushman. According to Hornoff, Goula has asked for at least half of the settlement amount before paying attorney fees and expenses – an amount totaling $232,000. Should this be the case and the fees come from his $300,000, Hornoff would be left with the remaining $68,000. That breaks down to about $30 a day for each day he spent in prison. - Id. \* ---
**Author:** ![GoatRider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/2acd7d/32.png) [@GoatRider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoatRider)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrongful-conviction-and-compensation/417639/26 "2007-09-04T21:16:11Z")
Thanks for this report Gfactor. One of my biggest fears is being wrongfully convicted of a crime. The injustice of it is terrifying. I try to lead my life well, and I hate to think that just by being in the wrong place, or looking like the wrong person, could ruin my life to such an extent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrongful-conviction-and-compensation/417639.md?page=1)