An innocent resident of the US state of Kansas received enormous compensation and became rich after spending 23 years in prison on a wrongful conviction.
In 1994, the 17-year-old Lamonte McIntyre was sentenced to life imprisonment for double murder, which he did not commit, and spent more than 8.5 thousand days behind bars. In October 2017, the Wyandot County Court reviewed the case and MacIntyre was rehabilitated.
The sentence review process began in 2009 at the initiative of the Kansas Attorney’s Office. During the hearing, it was established, among other things, that the prosecution put pressure on the witnesses in 1994, forcing them to give false testimonies and identify the shooter at McIntyre. Along with this, it turned out that the then detective was very likely to “declare a hunt” for African Americans on the basis of racism, and the presiding judge and prosecutor were in a romantic relationship.
The man was released in 2018. “It took me too long. This is too much for anyone to pay. I would rather just live my life. I no longer have the time to feel something like anger, ” said MacIntyre, leaving the courtroom after the acquittal.
In 2019, a 43-year-old man filed a lawsuit against the state of Kansas in accordance with the Erroneous Conviction Act, which gives illegal convicts the opportunity to receive monetary compensation.
On February 24, the office of the Attorney General decided on the case and decided to pay McIntyre $ 1.5 million. He was also granted a certificate of innocence. Case materials and DNA information will now be destroyed, and he will be able to start life from scratch.
In addition to money, the American will have full access to the health care program for two years and can rely on full tuition.
McIntyre commented on the consequences of the unlawful charge: “Kansas took 23 years of my life and gave me nothing in return. The state took my youth. “He took every birthday and Christmas with his family, and even in difficult times, when they needed me, I could not be with them.”
Once at liberty, the illegally convicted person founded the non-profit organization Miracle of Innocence, which helps those who find themselves in a similar situation.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, in turn, noted that the authorities “are trying to conscientiously comply with state laws,” and the resolution of the situation with a man who spent 23 years in prison wrongly confirms this. “In the end, we were able to resolve all issues by satisfying the requirements of the law, and came to an agreement,” the agency’s press release said.
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