Tampa man wrongfully imprisoned for nearly four decades to receive $14m
Robert DuBoise, sentenced over a 1983 rape and murder he did not commit, says he hopes others in his position now ‘get justice’
A Tampa, Florida, man who has been authorized to receive $14m for spending nearly four decades in prison over a rape and murder which he did not commit says he hopes his case makes it easier for the unjustly convicted to achieve justice before it’s too late for them.
“I’m just grateful,” Robert DuBoise told the New York Times of the compensation that Tampa’s city council voted to pay him to settle a lawsuit over his wrongful conviction. He said he hoped others in his position now “get justice and can move on without having to spend the rest of their life fighting the system that has already wronged them”.
DuBoise was 18 at the time that 19-year-old Barbara Grams was raped and beaten to death as she walked home from her Tampa restaurant job in August 1983. A medical examiner determined that someone had bitten Grams on one of her cheeks, prompting investigators to take bite samples from multiple men, including DuBoise.
“Mark Zuckerberg made more than $28 billion this morning after Meta stock makes record surge” https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/02/business/meta-stock-surge-mark-zuckerberg/index.html
seems fair.
He didn't make money, his net worth went up.
Also, how is that related to this in ANY way
He can easily get a low interest loan on that new worth going up.
$14m seems far too low:
Those don't sound too bad until you get to:
$40 an hour in exchange for losing most of your life - and the vast majority of your best years - is a fucking disgrace.
not to mention the need for psychological damage compensation. The guy lived 40 years with people around him, his friends and maybe relatives thinking that he brutally raped and murdered a young girl. I would have gone crazy probably, and die of stomach cancer or sth.
I agree he should receive a higher compensation, but have no idea what that should be. I can't look at it in terms of dollars per hour and think of an appropriate amount worth giving up 40 years of life. If I was in that position I don't think 1billion would be fair.
Is the 14m taxable?
I saw it differently, I was pleasantly surprised to see an amount that high because now he has the remainder of his life, maybe 30 to 40 years, to spend 14 Million USD. He could buy a home and car and still have enough for a modest retirement, if he chooses to.
If he invests the remainder into VYM then the dividends alone would be more than my annual salary.
No amount of money is worth 40 years
Agreed, but if a person were given a sum of money then that amount would seem about appropriate to me. Minimum 8M depending on legal fees, but preferably closer to 40M if we want him to be extra well off. We cannot undo the past.
Is your salary worth 40 hours a week?
It should be total FU money. The state should give him free healthcare, free public transportation, free legal services, free public utilities, and free internet.
-8 to 9 hours per day for sleep then.
Just a forty year whoopsie daisy.
This story is like male disposability meets eminent domain.
“Meh, he was compensated for his time”
Is he actually gonna get it or is there gonna be an appeal where he’s dragged through the courts again for years and only awarded $500k after being forced to pay $10 million in legal fees?
It’s a settlement, which means the city agreed to pay the $14,000,000 instead of going to trial and risk a verdict of a much higher amount. So no there won’t be any appeals and he should see the money.
Your tax dollars at work /s
Not to mention the tax dollars spent to house and feed an innocent man. And the salaries of the lawyers and cops involved to get him there.
reads the headline without context
Reality TV is going too far these days if you ask me..
How the fuck is money gonna fix this?
All prisons must go. Its inhumane to incarcerate people.
That's an interesting take. What do you recommend be done with criminals? Especially violent ones?
have you heard of restorative justice? it's a studied method that's proven more effective than prisons to rehabilitate offenders and heal the harm they've caused
short description
source
And when people are repeat offenders and enjoy killing people? Then what...
Then you lock them together with the people who did lesser crimes and can be rehabilitated to ensure they too will end up more likely to do crimes, maybe even bigger ones, when eventually released.
You seem to be intentionally obtuse.
Is that effectiveness based on statistical aggregations?
Because if so, the system’s not adhering to the necessary design constraint of “must handle all possible human behavior”.
Pass a law that says you can't be a violent criminal.
/s
Two words (and an article): Restorative Justice
its a long article and i cant read
what do you do about cases where the victim doesnt want to engage in a dialogue with the offender?
If you can't read, here's an online article reader you can use. Just select the entire content of the article and paste it as plain text on that site
The short answer to your question is that it's complicated - in the systems where restorative justice has the most potential to change things, it's still quite a radical approach and there's a lot to be figured out.
One way of addressing the problem you raise is that sometimes "surrogate victims" are used - people who have been victims of the same or similar crime. Apparently this has been quite effective in some instances, but ideally usage of this should be limited - one of the ongoing challenges is ensuring that the rehabilitation of offenders doesn't take precedence over the kind of two way healing that restorative justice is meant for
we shoot you straight into the phantom zone
...Which is a prison
anything can be a prison for you if you make it one yourself
you need to think more positively
This is 'Murica, you damned commie! MONEY IS EVERYTHING!