Originally Posted by
parrothead
Wow! What a story. We had a similar incident back in Illinois. Small town stuff. Father was convicted of murder of his 2 year old daughter based solely on a confession that was given after 16 hours in interogation. After the interogation he plead innocent. I think it was 5 years or so later that they finally said it was not him based on DNA evidence and they actually found the guy that did it. The guy that did it was already in prison for another murder when they finally charged him with this one.
It really makes you think how many people in the past have done life in prison or were even put to death for crimes they did not commit.
In the above story, the father was awarded a multi million dollar settlement for wrongful conviction.
The West Memphis 3 will not have the luxury of getting any kind of settlement. To save face and possibly millions in lawsuits the DA offered them a plea that was too sweet for them to pass up. Referred to as an "Alford Plea" the three get to maintain their innocence but had to plead guilty which led to them being released immediately. Of course they had already served almost 20 years. The only chance they have is that someone else is convicted and their pleas are set aside then they can sue the state.
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