It is good that this innocent man is being set free, but I am still blown away by how little compensation will be given to him. . .
Like others wrongly convicted in Texas, Wallis is eligible for up to $250,000 in compensation for the years he spent behind bars. He said he was he looking forward to enjoying a steak dinner and going fishing.
$250,000? That is not near enough. He should get at least $1 million for every year he spent wrongly behind bars. Money of course will never buy back those years, but the money is a symbol of society’s desire to make this wrong right. $250,000 for 18 years is a little less than $14,000 per year of imprisonment.
Texas should be ashamed of itself.
What is just as important as the money is having a good financial and life counselor to help people like this get readjusted to society. Many people with good experience and education could take $250,000 and parlay it into much more, but like most lottery winners, this money will probably get spent poorly and wastefully, but who wouldn’t want to get a little bit of satisfaction in life after 18 years wrongfully in jail?
$250,000 is not enough, that is a certainty. This man has no job history, no education, no credit, no retirement account, no car, no house, no property at all. Reasonable house in Texas, $70,000. Car, $10,000. Since this guy has no credit, he can either be a renter, or he can pay outright for these items. What sort of job will he be allowed to hold? Unless he gets lucky he will not get much.
You can see where I am heading with this. This guy is being set up for failure.
You have a really good point. In fact, I would say that the odds are strong that he’ll end up back in trouble down the road without some real help (or some real determination on his part to make a go of it) from either his family or from the state. Being out of society for that long I think would be a real crippling thing.