Texas DNA exonerees find prosperity after prison

[The Spartan]

AP through Yahoo.com

Texas DNA exonerees find prosperity after prison
By JEFF CARLTON, Associated Press Writer Jeff Carlton, Associated Press Writer 2 hrs 27 mins ago

DALLAS – Thomas McGowan's journey from prison to prosperity is about to culminate in $1.8 million, and he knows just how to spend it: on a house with three bedrooms, stainless steel kitchen appliances and a washer and dryer.

"I'll let my girlfriend pick out the rest," said McGowan, who was exonerated last year based on DNA evidence after spending nearly 23 years in prison for rape and robbery.

He and other exonerees in Texas, which leads the nation in freeing the wrongly convicted, soon will become instant millionaires under a new state law that took effect this week.

Exonerees will get $80,000 for each year they spent behind bars. The compensation also includes lifetime annuity payments that for most of the wrongly convicted are worth between $40,000 and $50,000 a year — making it by far the nation's most generous package.

"I'm nervous and excited," said McGowan, 50. "It's something I never had, this amount of money. I didn't have any money — period."

His payday for his imprisonment — a time he described as "a nightmare," "hell" and "slavery" — should come by mid-November after the state's 45-day processing period.

Exonerees also receive an array of social services, including job training, tuition credits and access to medical and dental treatment. Though 27 other states have some form of compensation law for the wrongly convicted, none comes close to offering the social services and money Texas provides.

The annuity payments are especially popular among exonerees, who acknowledge their lack of experience in managing personal finances. A social worker who meets with the exonerees is setting them up with financial advisers and has led discussions alerting them to swindlers.

The annuities are "a way to guarantee these guys ... payments for life as long as they follow the law," said Kevin Glasheen, a Lubbock attorney representing a dozen exonerees.

Two who served about 26 years in prison for rape will receive lump sums of about $2 million apiece. Another, Steven Phillips, who spent about 24 years in prison for sexual assault and burglary, will get about $1.9 million.

The biggest compensation package will likely go to James Woodard, who spent more than 27 years in prison for a 1980 murder that DNA testing later showed he did not commit. He eventually could receive nearly $2.2 million but first needs a writ from the state's Court of Criminal Appeals or a pardon from the governor.

McGowan and the others are among 38 DNA exonerees in Texas, according to the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions. Dallas County alone has 21 cases in which a judge overturned guilty verdicts based on DNA evidence, though prosecutors plan to retry one of those.

Charles Chatman, who was wrongly convicted of rape, said the money will allow him some peace of mind after more than 26 years in prison.

"It will bring me some independence," he said. "Other people have had a lot of control over my life."

Chatman and other exonerees already have begun rebuilding their lives. Several plan to start businesses, saying they don't mind working but want to be their own bosses. Others, such as McGowan, don't intend to work and hope to make their money last a lifetime.

Some exonerees have gotten married and another is about to. Phillips is taking college courses. Chatman became a first-time father at 49.

"That's something I never thought I'd be able to do," he said. "No amount of money can replace the time we've lost."

The drumbeat of DNA exonerations caused lawmakers this year to increase the compensation for the wrongly convicted, which had been $50,000 for each year of prison. Glasheen, the attorney, advised his clients to drop their federal civil rights lawsuits and then led the lobbying efforts for the bill.

Besides the lump sum and the monthly annuity payments, the bill includes 120 hours of paid tuition at a public college. It also gives exonerees an additional $25,000 for each year they spent on parole or as registered sex offenders.

No other state has such a provision, according to the Innocence Project.

Exonerees who collected lump sum payments under the old compensation law are ineligible for the new lump sums but will receive the annuities. Whether the money will be subject to taxes remains unsettled, Glasheen said.

The monthly payments are expected to be a lifeline for exonerees such as Wiley Fountain, 53, who received nearly $390,000 in compensation — minus federal taxes — but squandered it by, as he said, "living large." He ended up homeless, spending his nights in a tattered sleeping bag behind a liquor store.

But after getting help from fellow exonerees and social workers, Fountain now lives in an apartment and soon will have a steady income.

Fountain's story is a cautionary tale for the other exonerees, who meet monthly and lately have been discussing the baggage that comes with the money.

Chatman said he's been approached by "family, friends and strangers, too."

"It takes two or three seconds before they ask me how much money, or when do I get the money," he said. "Everyone has the perfect business venture for you."

Though appropriately wary, the exonerees say they are excited about having money in the bank.

"You're locked up so long and then you get out with nothing," McGowan said. "With this, you might be able to live a normal life, knowing you don't have to worry about being out on the streets."

I saw this and thought it might be relevant given the recent thread on Texas possibly admitting that it had executed an innocent man.

Honestly, I think they're getting ripped off. This may just be my gut reaction to it rather than a reasoned conclusion, but I really don't think $2 million would make me feel any better about losing a third of my life for something I didn't do. In fact I'd probably be screaming for heads to roll.

(Oh, and I don't know about all the men listed above, but the focus of the story, Mr. McGowan, is black in case anyone is wondering.)

[Simon_Jester]

It wouldn't make you feel better, but how much money would?

I can't give you twenty years of your life back. I can at least set you up as a comfortably prosperous middle-aged man rather than an impoverished one.

So in an absolute sense they're getting ripped off: the overall situation in their life sucks, and very few people would prefer to have such a life over the one they already have. But in a relative sense this is a pretty sweet deal compared to the experiences of a lot of other people coming out of prison, including people who were exonerated.

[The Spartan]

It wouldn't make you feel better, but how much money would?

I don't have a number to give you. Like I said, it's just my gut reaction to the thought of losing that huge of a chunk of my life. I mean, 25 years ago I was in kindergarten.

[KrauserKrauser]

You also have to consider the fact that some of these people would not be raking in vast sums of money on the outside and $2 mill + $40-50k annuity for life may be 2 or 3 times what they might be making had they not been wrongfully imprisoned.

That definitely does not make up for the time lost, but as it stands it may put you in a better place financially than you would be had things been otherwise.

[Mr Bean]

I found the amount of money fair. 80,000 a year USD is roughly equivalent to upper middle class if you don't live someplace expensive. It's what a superior civil servant might earn in a year. A medium level Attorney might make as much. A quick search shows that's what a Pharmacist or Veterinarian might earn each year.

80,000 a year is a decent figure. Not enough for lose two decades of your life but if you just think about pure helping these people out. It's a decent figure. It's more than enough to live easily, and pay for insurance, schooling or anything else they want.

[Simon_Jester]

It wouldn't make you feel better, but how much money would?

I don't have a number to give you. Like I said, it's just my gut reaction to the thought of losing that huge of a chunk of my life. I mean, 25 years ago I was in kindergarten.

Exactly. But if I have to start making amends now after you've been screwed over for twenty years, I can't give you back the twenty years. So by relative standards of "how should the state behave now?" there must be some amount of money that is enough that the state can't fairly be accused of ripping these people off.

[The Grim Squeaker]

It wouldn't make you feel better, but how much money would?

I don't have a number to give you. Like I said, it's just my gut reaction to the thought of losing that huge of a chunk of my life. I mean, 25 years ago I was in kindergarten.

Exactly. But if I have to start making amends now after you've been screwed over for twenty years, I can't give you back the twenty years. So by relative standards of "how should the state behave now?" there must be some amount of money that is enough that the state can't fairly be accused of ripping these people off.

Since off course the state tried to rip them off/accused them falsely on purpose.

[The Spartan]

So by relative standards of "how should the state behave now?" there must be some amount of money that is enough that the state can't fairly be accused of ripping these people off.

And I've admitted now, twice, that it's my gut reaction and not a reasoned argument.

[The Yosemite Bear]

well it all comes back to what happens when you ruin someone's life, and how much is that ruined life worth?

I mean there are people who haven't even been convicted, who can't get a job are raped for cash, because of their notierity....

[Alyrium Denryle]

Since off course the state tried to rip them off/accused them falsely on purpose.

Considering how shitty the "Justice" system in Texas is, it might as well.

[Death from the Sea]

on a different note I wonder how many of these people will actually have financial problems a few years down the road, like lottery winners. Where they think that because they have a large sum of money, which they have never been used to, and spend like crazy and are able to actually spend all of their money and end up broke.

much like what happened to Wiley Fountain as mentioned in the article.

[Pablo Sanchez]

Since off course the state tried to rip them off/accused them falsely on purpose.

If they had sent innocent men to prison on purpose then the state employees responsible would be in line for lengthy prison sentences of their own. The fact that they apparently made good faith errors is what saves them from criminal charges and runs it down into a civil liability instead.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Makes me wonder about that Texas shrink who testified that over 300 people were sociopaths and sexual sadists in his professional opinion during murder trials, including many where the person was later aquitted after the fact by DNA?

[Simon_Jester]

on a different note I wonder how many of these people will actually have financial problems a few years down the road, like lottery winners. Where they think that because they have a large sum of money, which they have never been used to, and spend like crazy and are able to actually spend all of their money and end up broke.

much like what happened to Wiley Fountain as mentioned in the article.

That's why some of them expressed interest in the annuity option. Annuities are a good way to prevent people from blowing a sum of money larger than they know what to do with, whether those people are ex-no-longer-cons or wealthy heirs.

Makes me wonder about that Texas shrink who testified that over 300 people were sociopaths and sexual sadists in his professional opinion during murder trials, including many where the person was later aquitted after the fact by DNA?

In this case, it seems likely that he knowingly participated in a few false convictions, but there's enough reasonable doubt that I don't think I'd vote to convict him. He could just be a really crappy psychologist.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Well suffice to say Texas's so called "Dr. Death" who made a career out of being a prosecution witness, was so apparently lopsided that the American Psychiatric Association Disbarred him back in the 1990s. One of the nails in his professional coffin, was stating that Serial Killer, Narcissit, and Pathological Liar Henry Lee Lucas, was a credible source for witness testimony.

[Junghalli]

He could just be a really crappy psychologist.

Or maybe his diagnosis were accurate. Somebody could be mentally deranged but still innocent of the crime they were being tried for.

OK, that's probably pretty implausible, but with only one sentence to go on it's vaguely possible.

Edit: I just read Yosemite Bear's last post, disregard what I just said.