84-year-old Isaiah Andrews has been wrongly jailed for 45 years after being found guilty of murdering his wife. Under the Ohio Innocence Project, which is meant to prevent innocent people from going to jail, Andrews was given a retrial in 2020 after the fact that evidence was hidden from his attorney during his initial trial. On October 27, 2021, he was unanimously found not guilty by the jury and he continued to file a civil rights lawsuit against the City of Cleveland. He said that “they stole decades of [his] life. It’s time for them to take responsibility” as he filed for wrongful imprisonment. As of now, he has moved on to receiving compensation due to his time in prison.
The 45-year wrongful imprisonment brings light to the fact that many innocent people are wrongfully jailed for reasons that are out of their hands; for Andrews, it was because the evidence was withdrawn and “Cleveland detectives… manipulated witnesses to convict Isaiah Andrews,” according to his attorneys. There is a need for legal rights to prevent more innocent people from going to jail for crimes they didn’t commit. Personally, I believe that there is a need to be transparent with evidence to attorneys to allow for the defendant and plaintiff to be accurately defended and represented in court.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/11/us/isaiah-andrews-released-ohio.html?auth=login-email&login=email
https://law.uc.edu/real-world-learning/centers/ohio-innocence-project-at-cincinnati-law.html
- Can money compensate for time lost? If so, how should it be calculated?
- The main reason Andrews was wrongfully imprisoned was that his attorney was never given key evidence; is there a way to prevent such a thing from happening?
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https://victims.ca.gov/legal/pc4900/#:~:text=In%202000%2C%20the%20law%20was,conviction%20time%20spent%20in%20custody.
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2021/11/ohio-set-to-pay-18-million-to-cleveland-man-for-1995-wrongful-murder-conviction.html#:~:text=State%20law%20says%20wrongfully%20convicted,life%20sentence%20for%20killing%20Eric.
According to the first article, it states that in California a compensation rate of about $140 “per day for each day of incarceration served, including pre-conviction time spent in custody” (California Victim Compensation Board). For the amount of time that Isaiah Andrews was put in prison that would be just under 2.3 million dollars. It’s hard to say whether this is the right amount of money, however, it equates to working everyday for 8 hours and receiving a little over 17 dollars per hour. This is a large amount of money that would essentially make up for the time Andrews could have been working. Although the case did not take place in California, according to the second article linked, a total of “$56,752.36 per year, plus lost wages and attorney’s fees” are able to be received for those wrongfully convicted. This would equate to more money than what California offers, and I think that it is fair to include attorney’s fees as lawyers are expensive. While Andrews has been proven innocent there are still many people who are wrongfully convicted. I think that many times the system preys on those who are minorities and less wealthy as they are easier to target and often don’t have the best resources. It’s clear that we need to begin taking every case seriously and fairly by not omitting key evidence as well as leaving prejudice behind.
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