Fla. Man Exonerated After 35 Years Behind Bars

[Purveyor]

(12-17) 08:31 PST Bartow, Fla. (AP) --

James Bain made his first-ever cell phone call Thursday, dialing his elderly mother to tell her he had been freed after 35 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

Mobile devices didn't exist in 1974, the year he was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping a 9-year-old boy and raping him in a nearby field.

Neither did the sophisticated DNA testing that officials more recently used to determine he could not have been the rapist.

Bain has spent more time in prison than any of the 245 inmates previously exonerated by DNA evidence nationwide, according to the Innocence Project of Florida.

"Nothing can replace the years Jamie has lost," said Seth Miller, a lawyer for the project, which helped Bain win freedom. "Today is a day of renewal."

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AP: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/12/17/national/a080454S34.DTL

[Goldstein1984]

1. Capital Punishment

Could there be a better practical argument against it?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

2. This wasn't a capital case.

[Adsos Letter]

3. The principle remains the same.

[Goldstein1984]

4. No, it wasn't, and it's good that it wasn't.

This case just shows--again--that the process in fallible. We have no right to impose the ultimate punishment until we have the ultimate (infallible) criminal justice system.

In our system, justice is a process, not the result. If a guilty person is set free according to the rules of the process, or if an innocent person is incarcerated according to the rules of the process, we still say justice has been done.

[derby378]

6. For Jamie, 35 years in the slammer was just as bad as a death sentence

What do you do after you come out? How do you achieve rebirth?

I'm glad the Innocence Project cleared Jamie's name, but justice hasn't been served yet. This man deserves a life. A good life.

[Goldstein1984]

7. And compensation, if that is even possible

for what he lost and how he suffered during those 35 years. Society now needs to pay its debt to him.

[DainBramaged]

5. Yup, 35 years, no problem, no compensation, no apology

and these Prosecutors remain free on their incompetence.

[Occulus]

8. If you read the article, FL passed a law last year entitling him to $50,000/year

for each year he was incarcerated. He'll get $1.75M, but that's far, far too low IMO.

[DainBramaged]

9. So, he gets NO credit for 35 years in prison on his Social Security

they throw an arbitrary $50,000 a year at him because that is what the State feels his life was worth all these years, he never had a chance to have a family, and he's lived a regimented life in a small cell for over three decades, he is released into a society that is suffering under a terrible depression, and because you think I didn't read the article, I don't understand how gracious the State of Florida is being to this man.


No family, health insurance, social skills, job, just a few bucks for giving up his life for overzealous Prosecutors who deserve to spend life in prison for taking his life.

These stories make me very angry.

[EOTE]

10. Why the hell isn't DNA testing mandatory where it's available?

How the fuck can someone submit several requests for the DNA testing to be done only to have them all turned down? Time after time, innocents are finally granted freedom because DNA testing proves their innocence, yet there are thousands of cases pending where a person's innocence can be proven, but it's not provided by default. This makes me so incredibly angry. I wonder how many other Mr. Bains are out there, spending decades in prison only because our fucked up legal system doesn't really want to know if he's guilty or not. It's beyond disgusting.