OMG : For spending 40 years in jail wrongly, US Court awards African man $2 Million

 
Ricky Jackson deserves $5.92 for each hour he spent in prison as a wrongfully convicted man, according to a formula the state of Ohio uses.
Jackson, 59, was awarded a little over $1 million yesterday, a down payment on what the state owes him for the estimated 340,272 hours he spent behind bars since his conviction in the 1975 murder of money order salesman Martin Franks. His total payment should be slightly over $2 million.
Jackson and two of his friends, brothers Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman, were exonerated last year after the only witness against them admitted his testimony during a trial decades ago was false. Eddie Vernon, who was 12 at the time of the murder, told a judge that police pressured him to testify.

Jackson was 18 at the time. Wiley Bridgeman was 20, and Ronnie, now known as Kwame Ajamu, was 18.
The brothers' case with the state Court of Claims is a week or two behind Jackson's case, but they should also receive initial checks soon, Michele Berry, a Cincinnati attorney representing the men told The Plain Dealer Thursday.
Though the $2 million automatic payment -- about $51,900 per year -- may seem substantial to some, no amount can repay someone for almost 40 years of their life, said Brian Howe, an attorney with the Ohio Innocence Project whose work helped to free Jackson.
"If you had come up to me at 19 and said 'you can go to prison and we'll let you out when you are 60 and we'll give you even a billion dollars,' nobody is going to take that deal," Howe said. "There's no amount of money that can make up for it."
The state payment is the first in a two-step process those wrongfully convicted in Ohio can take to be compensated. Next, Jackson and the others can file a claim to be paid for the things -- other than time -- that they lost while behind bars, like wages. The attorneys who handled their legal cases can also be compensated for their work.
The men, and others are among nearly 50 wrongly convicted individuals released from Ohio prisons since 1990, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
Though not all receive compensation, in 2012 Ohio lawmakers made it easier for those who file a claim by fast-tracking initial payments to within 60 days of when a county court declared a person wrongfully convicted.
In Ohio, a person declared wrongfully convicted is eligible for a base rate of $40,330 per year. That number is then adjusted for inflation based on information from the state auditor's office