Three men who spent 36 years in prison for a murder they did not commit — they were wrongly arrested as teenagers by Baltimore police and wrongly convicted by a jury — will receive $48 million from the city after a vote Wednesday by the Baltimore City Board of Estimates.
The $48 million payout is the highest ever awarded in Maryland and one of the highest multi-plaintiff settlements nationally, according to Jeffrey S. Gutman, director of the Public Justice Advocacy Clinic at George Washington University Law School, who tracks wrongful-conviction settlements.
So the tax payers have to pay for this miscarriage of justice and no police or prosecutors are held accountable? Why are they not facing a life sentence?
Why the police and prosecution and not the jury? It’s their duty to determine guilt, isn’t it?
No, cities have insurance for this kind of thing. The premiums might go up, but the tax payer isn’t footing the whole bill.
The fact that the burden on tax payers is lower, does not change the fact that there is zero accountability here.
I didn’t argue otherwise. I was just dispelling the notion that the $48m comes out of the city budget. Which, may be part of the problem.