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Life After Death Row Summary

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On February 26 2017, 60 Minutes aired the segment titled Life After Death Row. In it, Scott Pelley interviewed Ray Hinton, a 57-year-old man who was convicted and put on death row for a crime he did not commit. Hinton explained that he had lost thirty years of his life in prison. Specifically, he explained that a witness had misidentified him as the suspect of three shootings and two murders. After a new ballistics test proved his innocence years later, all the state of Alabama had to offer was a drop of all the charges – no money compensation whatsoever. For Hinton, adjusting to the world after thirty years of being incarcerated was a journey. As he proposed, “I’m still learning. I’m still learning that I can take a bath every day. I’m still learning that I don’t have to get up at 3 o’clock in the morning and eat breakfast. I’m still learning that life is not always what we think it is.” Although some people believe that the state doesn’t necessarily owe compensation for those who were falsely convicted…show more content…
In my view, it is truly unjust to not give the innocent people money for wrongfully going through jail time. In addition, an abundance of these people lost so many years of their life from being falsely convicted to jail – the least the government can do is give compensation to help them get back on their feet. Some may object to the government offering compensation, on the grounds that they don’t believe that their tax money is worth it. Yet I would argue that it is in fact, worth it. Their lives were ruined, and years were taken from them – years that cannot be given back. In fact, these people were forced to be in an environment that they didn’t deserve to be in. Overall, I strongly believe that the government owes money to those who were falsely convicted, because to not offer any compensation so they can attempt to get their life back is truly inextricably
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