A Texas man who spent 34 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of aggravated assault was exonerated Thursday by a Dallas County judge who ruled that he is actually innocent.
The judge approved a motion by the Dallas County District Attorney’s office to dismiss the case against Benjamin Spencer, 59, who was initially convicted in 1987 of murder in the carjacking and death of Jeffrey Young.
“This day has been a long time coming. I am relieved and humbled to help correct this injustice,” said Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot.
Spencer, who has maintained his innocence, saw his 1987 conviction later overturned. He was then tried again and convicted and sentenced to life in prison for aggravated robbery of Young.
He should be awarded 100K for each year spent in prison and an additional million just because.
Good news sorta
Under Texas law, he is eligible for a lump sum payment of up to $80,000 for each year he was incarcerated and an annuity, Wattley said.
I figured Texas would tell him to gtfo
Fuck that.
Let’s look at minimum wage at the time he was imprisoned: $3.35/hour. Make that his wage the entire time he was in prison. After the first 40 hours a week he’d get OT, so it comes out to about $3,300/month. Since he wasn’t able to spend that money, let’s put a monthly payment into the market, with an average return of 7%…
That would put him at $6,587,619.39 at the end of 37 years if we value his freedom at the 1987 minimum wage.
That should be the opening bid from he state.
He should get to commit a crime with a 34 year sentence. As a treat.
There’s a short story with the exact same premise https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Advance
Abbot is still prolly going to try and execute him.
Yet ppl still support the death penalty
I don’t oppose the death penalty because I don’t think some crimes are heinous enough to deserve it, I oppose the death penalty because I don’t trust the justice system to not make mistakes.
People always point to the worst of the worst to justify the death penalty, but it’s not about them. It’s about us. I just picture people who support the death penalty the same as medieval peasants cheering on the gruesome torture and execution of a criminal like its some kind of entertainment. People need to do more introspection about what part of their personality they are feeding when they give in to the desire for vengeance. That’s not even taking into account that no justice system is perfect.
I’ll bet every dollar to my name that Ken Paxton will attempt to overturn this
