Louis Wright spent 35 years in a Michigan prison for a crime he did not commit. He was released in November after DNA tests ruled him out as the perpetrator of a sex attack on an 11-year-old girl in Albion, MI. Mr. Wright is now 65. Not only did he lose his freedom for 35 years, the perpetrator of this crime was never caught and if still alive, probably committed numerous sex crimes in those same 35 years.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/12/payment-louis-wright-wrongful-conviction-michigan
Wright was eligible for parole beginning in 2008 but refused to take a sex offender therapy class because he did not commit this crime. He said he knew he would be cleared when he gave a DNA sample last summer.
In Michigan, people exonerated based on new evidence are eligible for $50,000 for each year spent in a Michigan prison. According to The Guardian article, “[t]he attorney general’s office sometimes resists paying, based on strict criteria in the law.” Fuck you, Michigan. Your laws limit liability in wrongful conviction cases, and you abuse your discretion by going easy on pedophile priests.
DNA exonerated Mr. Wright. Does Michigan plan to tell the public if there is a DNA match to the actual perpetrator?
Compare the recent wrongful conviction settlement for $25 million in the North Carolina case of Ronnie Long.
Long’s case is particularly egregious, but some of the factors that led to his imprisonment are still causing wrongful convictions today according to experts. Those factors include: official misconduct, perjury, false accusation, false or misleading forensic evidence, false (coerced) confession, mistaken witness identification, and inadequate legal defense. Official misconduct and perjury are the leading factors.
Money is the only language state, county and city agencies speak. They are going to continue to have to pay for past wrongs; let’s hope it cleans up their current acts. Mr. Wright has filed a lawsuit against police for violating his rights during the 1988 investigation.
L. Brooks Patterson and Richard Thompson and their enablers violated my 11-year-old brother’s civil rights in 1977. Tim has spent the last almost 47 years dead. Not one person stepped forward to tell the truth about why this case has never been solved.
Wrongful conviction cases and innocence projects are extremely important. So are public corruption cases and what I refer to as “guilt” projects.