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| Six sue for years spent wrongly in prison |
| By Boston Globe |
| Published: 02/21/2005 |
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Six men who spent years behind bars in Massachusetts for crimes they didn't commit are each seeking up to $500,000 in compensation from the state under a new law that went on the books in January, state officials and lawyers said. Lawyer Johnson and Neil Miller, both freed after spending a decade in prison, filed legal motions in Suffolk Superior Court requesting the compensation Wednesday. Their claims add to four other cases filed earlier this year. Johnson was freed in 1982 after a witness identified the shooter in a murder that had led to his conviction. Miller was freed in 1990 after DNA evidence cleared him of a rape. ''My life has been a wreck, and I'm still recovering from the devastation that started in 1972," Johnson said yesterday. ''My life has been in limbo. God knows where I would be if I hadn't gone through that injustice." The six cases are the first filed under a law providing up to $500,000 in damages for those wrongfully convicted. Four other wrongfully convicted men -- Dennis Maher, Marvin Mitchell, John Scullin, and Eduardo Velasquez (who went by the name Angel Hernandez) -- are also seeking damages from the state. Under the law, passed by the Legislature late last year, exonerated individuals must seek a civil trial to make their case for the compensation. They have to provide evidence of their innocence either through a court order overturning the conviction or a governor's pardon. The former prisoners are allowed to receive up to $500,000, allowing the court to take into account lost income and other factors in determining the amount of the award. Massachusetts joined more than a dozen other states with similar laws, including New York and Illinois, said Peter Neufeld, cofounder and co-director of The Innocence Project in New York City, which works to exonerate wrongfully convicted prisoners across the nation. Neufeld also serves as co-counsel on several cases already filed in Massachusetts superior courts. ''This statute is long overdue, and we're very optimistic that the attorney general will be supportive of these men and not treat these cases in an adversary way, but rather do everything humanly possible to provide quick, meaningful compensation for these people," Neufeld said. |
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