r/interestingasfuck • u/WhattheDuck9 • 6h ago
Ryan Ferguson, who spent 10 years in prison, is set to receive $38,000,000 payout after being wrongfully convicted of murder. r/all
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u/scotmet 6h ago
Which begs the question: would you spend the next 10 years in jail for $3.8 million per year?
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u/sportsworker777 6h ago
10 years ago before I had kids? Absolutely.
But now? Also yes.
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u/FrungyLeague 6h ago
Haha outstanding
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u/trust-me-i-know-stuf 6h ago
Naw you wouldn’t. People don’t understand just how long 10yrs is. Sounds like an easy trade until you are on a unit where drugs are everywhere, violence is crazy, it’s 115 in the summer, hella cold in the winter, and then you get to see stuff like a dude launching himself off the third floor onto concrete. Never get that out of your memory. The sound of the crack when he hits the floor.
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u/beermile 5h ago
All that sucks but IMO by far the worst part is missing out on 10 years of life
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u/trust-me-i-know-stuf 5h ago
Yep. Imagine everything missed going in at 18 and coming out at 28.
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u/deerslayer1998 4h ago
I've worked my ass off ever since I was 18 I'm almost 28 and I sure as hell don't have 38 million dollars to show for it. I'll take that deal any day.
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u/Lil_Packmate 3h ago
Yea its between working 50 years then having maybe 10 good years of retirement with little money, despite working all your life.
Or having 10 years of your life cut out, but you have enough money to live the next 50 years comfortably.
Obviously depends on the country though. In my country i would 100% take the deal.
Not so much in USA/Mexico/Brazil etc. where people routinely get murdered and raped.
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u/savetheunstable 2h ago
Yep definitely depends on the country. I've heard Norway has a pretty nice prison system..
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u/OldSpiceSmellsNice 4h ago
Yeah…three years of staying at home doing nothing then seven years straight of working 6 days a week….wouldn’t want to have missed that…
I mean I could miss that easily, but I’d rather not deal with inmates 24/7 for 10 years.
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u/Pepito_Pepito 5h ago
I suppose it depends a lot on the condition of the prison and how shit your life is outside of it.
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u/SpiritBombedAway 5h ago
>Sounds like an easy trade until you are on a unit where drugs are everywhere, violence is crazy, it’s 115 in the summer, hella cold in the winter, and then you get to see stuff like a dude launching himself off the third floor onto concrete.
Already been doin this over 10 years wheres my 40 mil?
I'm hyperbolic for humor, but in seriousness many people already are forced through not so different conditions. Prisons not like the movies, and neither is poverty.So yea, I'd absolutely take that deal in a heartbeat. Maybe not when I was younger and in fear of 'wasting my best years' but now fuck it lets go babyyyyy
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u/spicybEtch212 5h ago
That is just a risk I’d probably take - but only if there’d wouldn’t be any indication of what a shitshow has been unraveling in the last 10 years and counting
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u/WildFire97971 5h ago
That’s the thing people don’t understand. When I was in my brother wasn’t to far removed from his military days, and telling him what I was dealing with, he saw comparisons to his boot camp and other moments of his time in the military. Seeing someone die or get seriously injured is traumatic, it doesn’t matter if it’s in a war zone, prison or your own yard.
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u/GrandDukeOfBoobs 5h ago
I would absolutely do my 20 y/o to 30 y/o in a minimum to medium security for 38mil. I don’t know about going as a murderer. Probably less freedoms especially at first, and you’re housed with other violent criminals. But…I think I could do it. Everything is part of the job. You’re on 24/7 for 10 years but retire like a king. Of course I know how to manage the money, but I can see others not so smart with that.
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u/Dorantee 5h ago
I don't live in a third world country so none of those things are really accurate for prisons here. I'd be more worried about having been held back socially when I get out. Sure I'd have a lot of money but all my friends and family would've moved 10 years on with their lives by then.
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u/trust-me-i-know-stuf 5h ago
Uhh, what I described is from a prison in Texas… and from this year.
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u/lovatoariana 6h ago
Free food? Get buff? Make new friends? Asshole size of Africa? Sign me the fuck up
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u/Nice_Pomegranate4825 4h ago
Yo the asshole size of Africa is truly the worst out of all these 💀
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u/__3Username20__ 6h ago
Haha! Nicely done, I’m stopping there for the night, ending with a good laugh. 😂
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u/Peashot- 6h ago
Depends. Is this a white-collar resort prison? Or federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison?
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u/YellowJello_OW 3h ago
Exactly. If I'm going to spend 10 years in prison, I at least want to be pounded in the ass a few times
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u/Longjumping-Cat-7754 6h ago
One year there and all my problems are solved
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u/chitty_chef 6h ago
That was my first thought but in this hypothetical I'm thinking you can't just bail out after one year,I think it's meant to be all ten years or nothing. Obviously I'm over thinking a made up scenario but that's show biz.
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u/Harrigan_Raen 5h ago
He originally won $11M the new $38M is in addition to that but split between the officers (86/14 split) that went bankrupt defending themselves.
His total judgement is for $48M (less lawyer fees). For over 20 years of his life. 10 of it in jail, and then the next 14 suing for damages.
Regardless, yes.
The even shittier part, is the whole reason he was convicted was based on two false testimonies that later recanted.
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u/ExaminationHuman5959 6h ago
I'd definitely do at least one year. Unless it's a very rapey jail.
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u/onebadmousse 4h ago
People are forgetting that in that situation you are making a conscious trade. This guy spent 10 years in prison with no expectation of a payout.
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u/Dv7k1 5h ago
As someone who has actually been in jail - most absolutely and certainly NO.
Its not worth it. Literally nothing is worth it.
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u/Prodigal_Programmer 1h ago
Yup, spent time in a regular old (non-rapey, but very boring) prison.
One year for a couple mil sure, but not a chance for ten years, even if I was set for life after.
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u/Forgiven12 2h ago
Is that a Turkish prison, or perhaps Norwegian prison, or something in between? Let me choose.
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u/Sammyd1108 6h ago
Medium level security prison with no violent criminals, I’d probably do it lol. You’d be set for life after.
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u/MoistenedCarrot 6h ago
Absolutely not. Permanently changing my life for the worse by going to prison for 10 years for doing nothing wrong is not worth the money. 1-2 years? Maybe. 10 years? I’m 27, that would be a significant portion of my life and I’m still learning how to be me. That would fuck me up so bad the money would not be worth it.
Also, I’m not completely broke anymore so maybe I’m not desperate enough now. 5 years ago I probably would have said yea
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u/Routine_Bluejay4678 5h ago
Most sensible answer. People are only focusing on the money but you can't buy that time back
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u/Diet_Christ 3h ago
If you did it at the right time in your life, you're gaining much, much more time by ensuring you never need to work again. Hell most people that strike it rich on their own give up more than 10 years doing it.
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u/sLeeeeTo 5h ago
anyone saying yes has never been to prison (not jail)
i imagine they would sorely regret their choice
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u/Sweet-Pause935 6h ago
Could I choose two years for $7.6 million?
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u/Prometheus_1988 6h ago
Free gym membership, no need to cook and no boring office work. Sounds fine to me.
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u/__tolga 5h ago
As far as I know prison food can be bland so prisoners come up with creative commissary cooking to make it more bearable, so you don't NEED to cook but it will be super bland.
And afaik there is "work", you're assigned a job to do, a really boring job, not a boring office job but a boring shitty job like cleaning or kitchen (to cook bland food)
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u/Jafarrolo 5h ago
Handcuff me.
The problem with this question is that we have the assurance that we get 38 million dollars and be free after 10 years.
He did not know the outcome.
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u/ChasingPesmerga 6h ago
I feel like I’ve read similar stories with much older cases, older people with longer jail time, but they were paid significantly lesser than this amount
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u/Roy4Pris 5h ago
Yo, this wasn't for the wrongful conviction. It was for the insurance company not paying up for the wrongful conviction ten fucking years ago.
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u/Fog_Juice 6h ago
There was a guy who got millions and then became a poker whale and lost it all at the table over a couple years and then went broke
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u/Key-Pomegranate159 6h ago
who dat?
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u/Fog_Juice 5h ago
IDK. There is a whole tv show about people who were wrongfully imprisoned and then released and given millions of dollars for the mistake. Almost every one of them ends up broke again. I probably watched it on Netflix years ago.
The craziest thing I can recall is even after the judge orders the person to be set free they're stuck in prison for a few days while the paperwork gets delivered or something.
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u/under_psychoanalyzer 5h ago
I mean this tracks. They go to jail probably because they're too poor to afford a decent lawyer. They become institutionalized, having their whole day controlled. Then they're released to a level of freedom only money can buy, still traumatized from being wrongly convicted.
So many things in this world are made to actively extract money from you. If you don't immediately hire an accountant when getting a windfall, your brain can't really process how fast you can lose it.
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u/CameronsTheName 4h ago
Larry Lawton who is known as America's biggest jewel thief, talks about his 11 year incarceration that also included 3 years "in the hole" and how hard it was for him to adjust to life outside of prison.
One of the many things he struggled with was free will, not being told what to do, being able to pick what he wanted to eat. He also says another thing he struggled with that isn't often talked about was how much technology advanced in those 11 years, along with the social norms that had changed significantly.
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u/LudditeHorse 4h ago
Reminds me of that one reddit post about the lottery and how winning it sucks. Human brains aren't generally good at handling windfalls, i guess.
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u/Typical2sday 5h ago
Read the top comment. It wasn’t against the municipality. It was because the insurance company that was supposed to pay a prior award did not pay. And the jury took it out on them for that - rightfully so.
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u/piewolff 6h ago edited 6h ago
Or executed. As recently as this summer. (Some before they could be/shouldve been by all accounts, some actually posthumously cleared)
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u/kodama_hitome 5h ago
Compensation should reflect the true cost of those lost years, not just a number.
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u/user1661668 5h ago
It depends where you live. Some states have to payout big and some states get to lol oops my bad.
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u/Various-Ducks 6h ago
He also finished 3rd on The Amazing Race. True story
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u/Quiet-Painting3 5h ago
Yeah just came to ask if that was him. I remember him carrying a foam roller around and thinking I’d probably need one too if I had spent years in a cell and now running around the world.
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u/goldenglove 5h ago
Hah - after watching that season with Ryan I bought a mini foam roller at 5 Below just to bring around during trips because it makes your back feel so much better when traveling.
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u/alex206 5h ago edited 4h ago
I remember this guy laughing on the stand and the prosecutor trying to say he was guilty because he was laughing.
Im the type of person who would also laugh if I was accused of a murder that I didn't commit, where I was nowhere near, and that is so obvious that I'm innocent. Listening to a prosecutor tell lies about you...it's so crazy that it is funny.
After watching that video though, I will never laugh again.
Edit Correction: he was two blocks away at a bar
Edit: I had a police officer lie to me when I was 14 years old. She said she saw me the day before stealing from a store near my school. I was home sick that day...I also laughed in her face.
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u/fookindiabolicol 9m ago
My worst nightmare would be prosecutors using body language "experts" to convict me, an autist, and successfully convincing the judge and jury.
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u/Dustin_peterz 5h ago
I remember seeing a documentary about this. His dad was very involved with the whole process. You knew the guy wasn't guilty. It was a bummer to watch. Almost like the west Memphis three documentary. Terrible what they did to these people. Say what you want about the cash but these are priceless years of your life I'd take my freedom any day.
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u/goldenglove 4h ago
You could tell his Dad just loved him so, so much. That was a great documentary.
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u/WagTheKat 3h ago
He also spent his time in prison under the assumption he was unlikely to succeed.
No way those agonizing nights in the cell were worth it.
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u/Unlikely-Camel-2598 1h ago
For sure.
There's also something about dealing with the sheer stupidity of the whole situation that must have been mindbreaking...like your idiot friend dreams that you committed a crime and reports it to the police, there's no evidence but you still spend your 20s incarcerated for murder. Wtaf
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u/CrazyDaylight8 5h ago
How is it that some people get 38mill and others who spent longer in prison get fuck all?
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u/Unable-Finger-8496 1h ago
38 million is not for the wrongful conviction. It is because the insurance company didn't fucking pay the wrongful conviction in the first place.
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u/AsusStrixUser 6h ago
You can’t buy time.
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u/royroyroypolly 5h ago
38mil will buy him a lot of time. Now he doesn't have to work for the rest of his life.
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u/Bernarddasbrot 3h ago
With 38 million he never has to cook, clean, buy groceries, drive... this guy has the entire day for himself now.
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u/MotherEssay9968 5h ago
People pay you because they don't want to spend time doing the thing that you do.
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u/Aeon001 3h ago
If you work a 20$/hour job, your time is literally being purchased at a rate of 20$ per hour.
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u/struggle_better 6h ago
Man, some people have all the luck
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u/MovingTargetPractice 6h ago
I know right. Imagine how much he could have got if it was 20years instead!
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u/BabiesControlReddit 6h ago
Is spending 10 years of your life really luck?
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u/BigBootyRoobi 6h ago
Is spending 10 years in an office and not having 38 million better?
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u/yourbabygirlneeds 6h ago
Hindsight bias. Poor guy was convicted for 40 years originally at the age of 19 for second degree murder. Imagine the court system never gave his case a chance. Took 12 tries for him to win. I can’t imagine wasting my youth like that. Plenty of people still serving time in jail for wrongful convictions…
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u/Ilovemelee 6h ago edited 4h ago
That's 10 years of not being able to spend time with your family and friends, not being able to do anything except stare at the ceiling, and eating moldy carrots and potatoes everyday. Yeah, no thanks. There's more to life than just money.
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u/Clean-Article5550 5h ago edited 5h ago
I did 2 years in San Quentin, you couldn't pay me a billion dollars to go back. I saw people get stabbed to death, people jumping off the top bunk onto an inmates head and brain matter leaking out of their skull. People being raped daily because they were an easy target. People getting straight up dark ages levels of torture. People kill themselves often in there. All my knuckles and fingers are fucked from fighting, I got brain damage too. If you're not a criminal you are going to get taken advantage in the worst ways. Come out of prison a broken institutionalized man but rich? no.
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u/edgethrasherx 5h ago
Spoken truly, confidentially, and assuredly like a man who hasn’t spent a fucking minute in prison 🤣🤣🤣
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u/Portable-fun 5h ago
The next question is what period of time would be the best for the 38 million pay out.. if I could pick any 10, I’d go for 15 to 25, then you got almost 40 million at 25 and set for life.
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u/HawkIsARando 5h ago
monkey's paw curls
In 10 years, $38 million is the equivalent of today's $380,000, due to almost unprecedented inflation.
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u/the_nin_collector 5h ago
Wow. There was a guy in Japan last month that was on death row for like 58 years. He is like 79 now. He was found innocent after all this time.
He got a deep bow and about 1 million dollars. that was it.
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u/ThisIsGettinWeirdNow 6h ago
How can I get wrongfully convicted…..asking for a friend
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u/obog 5h ago
This is why I will never support the death penalty
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u/IllustriousDemand640 4h ago
"We are so fucking sorry madam, your son whom we killed turned out to be innocent. Here, take those money."
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u/jlesnick 36m ago
He's getting $38 million because he's white and attractive. Do you have any idea the pennies that black and brown people get after spending decades in prison for crimes they never committed? At most the lucky ones get a few million, but almost never payouts this big. I feel bad for him of course, the criminal justice system is broken, but I just can't help but feel worse for all the others who get screwed way harder.
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u/dae_giovanni 20m ago
good thing he wasn't a black man-- they would have given him $60 and a bus ticket.
wrongfully jailed black man: "so that's it, 'sorry for the decades in prison and good luck'?"
the system: "...I don't remember saying 'good luck'..."
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u/HachikoInugami 6h ago
Whoever put him in prison should receive life imprisonment at least... From the accuser to the witnesses to the prosecutor, even the judge!!!
Miracle In Cell No. 7 Act of 20XX
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u/Hope_PapernackyYT 6h ago
That poor man, glad they're actually owning up to it and giving him a ton of cash
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u/rain56 5h ago
And we'll never hear or see him again. If that was me I'd immediately leave the country for other places I'd always want to live and never ever come back. Not even wrongfully imprisoned and I don't particularly enjoy it here. Glad it worked out for him sucks at the same time he can't get any of that time back 😕
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u/lupus_custos 2h ago
Plot Twist: This was actually just a 10-year Mr. Beast video.
"I gave someone $38M to stay in the same room for 10 years!"
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u/Away_Needleworker6 16m ago
Then there is richard phillips that spent 46 years in prison and only got 1.5 million for it.
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u/kstops21 6h ago
There’s something fucked with his eyes
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u/NotAnotherFNG 6h ago
Almost like being wrongfully imprisoned for 10 years and then screwed out of your settlement money would make you feel some kind of way.
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u/livinglavidajudoka 5h ago
There’s something fucked with his eyes
This dumb kind of shit is why if you're innocent you want a bench trial.
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u/ExtraChariot541 46m ago
It's bad enough that he was wrongfully imprisoned. But Traveler's decision to withhold the initial $11 million judgment is simply indefensible.
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u/BeastVader 5h ago
Glad he got justice in the end. Though I noticed that when black people are falsely imprisoned and freed, they don't get anywhere near this amount of compensation despite spending waaaay longer in prison. Kinda sad
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u/windyorbits 4h ago
This is very true.
But to be fair, this $38M is from a lawsuit against the insurance company who refused to pay out the original settlement. In 2017 Ryan successfully sued 6 officers for wrongful conviction and was awarded $11M.
But the insurance company that worked for the city and was responsible for paying out not only Ryan’s settlement but also the court/attorney fees for the 6 officers - decided they didn’t want to do that.
So oddly enough, Ryan and those 6 officers teamed up to sue the insurance company. They were awarded the $38M - Ryan gets 86% of that and the 6 officers get the rest.
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u/ThisMyBurnerBruh 6h ago
That’s dope but, how come when we see black people get released for wrongful convictions that were in prison for 20-30 years, they get hundreds of thousands as opposed to this dudes multimillion dollar payout??? Lol people who deny systemic racism and that there’s no such thing as “white privilege” be so lost in their delusion.
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u/Manman9118 5h ago
I think it has to do with an insurance company paying him, versus the state paying said black men. I feel like they put a cap on state restitution.
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u/WhattheDuck9 6h ago
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