As you may already know, Anthony Graves spent a shocking 18 years on death row for murders he did not commit and was exonerated in November of 2010, thankfully before his death sentence could be carried out. To read more about his case and exoneration, click here.
He would have been elegible to receive compensation of $1.4 million for his wrongful conviction, had the document ordering his release contained just one little word: innocence.
But the document did not, and so he gets nothing.
Graves is innocent. But because the word wasn't included in the order which dismissed the charges against him, he doesn't get a dime for that great big error which cost him 18 years of his life. His attorney, Nicole Casarez, says the Texas Comptroller's Office should have taken her client's unique circumstances into consideration. I have to agree.
Grave's cannot seek a pardon from Governor Rick Perry because, after all, there's nothing for him to be pardoned for - asking to be pardoned would be admitting guilt for something he hasn't done. Casarez said a civil suit seeking compensation is one of several options which will be discussed with attorneys specialising in that kind of law.
What gets me so riled up about this is the hypocrisy of the whole sordid business. That Texas, a state which frequently forces people to pay the ultimate price for their mistakes, refuses to face up to and pay the price for its own errors. Instead, they sweep things under the rug, and innocent people suffer.
Maybe if the state wasn't wasting millions of dollars on the death penalty every year, they'd have enough cash left over to compensate the man from whom they stole 18 years of his life.
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