Wrongfully Imprisoned for 31 Years

Joe Jarvis – After spending over three decades in prison for a crime he did not commit, Lawrence McKinney was cleared of the charges in 2008 after DNA evidence was tested.

McKinney
Lawrence McKinney

It took another year for the government to release him from custody. They sent Lawrence out into a world he didn’t know. But they didn’t let him leave empty-handed. The government gave Lawrence McKinney $75.

Seventy-five-dollars to start a new life after being wrongfully caged by government prosecutors all those years ago.

What can you do when it takes thousands of dollars to even hire a lawyer for the slim chance of seeking a “redress of grievances” against, in this case, the state of Tennessee?

Luckily Lawrence had the support of a prison pen pal who became his wife. She, his church, and charities focusing on innocent people wrongly incarcerated helped him take the government to court.

At first, it was an uphill battle. Although Lawrence McKinney was cleared of the charges, he had to prove his innocence in order to be fully exonerated, and become eligible for a payout based on the state’s mistake.

It took an act of the Governor, but finally, a decade after being cleared, McKinney received the maximum amount allowed by the state of Tennessee, $1 million.

CNN Says he “Finally Gets Justice”

This is justice? A million dollars might sound like a lot. But it’s actually just over $32,000 per year he spent in prison. It’s $25,000 per year for the time that elapsed between his conviction and his final “justice”–the $1 million award.

If Lawrence was paid $32,000 per year incarcerated, and that money was put into an account with just 1% interest, compounded yearly, it would have accrued almost $200,000 of interest. But in 1977, the year he was imprisoned, the interest rate for 10 year CD accounts was about 6%. There were similar rates in 1987, and 1997. At that rate, Lawrence could have earned a total of $1.9 million in interest over the course of his incarceration, for a total of $2.9 million.

Lawrence Mckinney is now 61 years old. The first lump sum paid out $353,000 and will go almost entirely towards legal fees.

Then he will receive $3,300 per month until the $647,000 is gone. Mckinney will be 77.

Adjust for inflation, and by the time McKinney receives the final payment, the $3,300 per month will be worth merely $2,400 in real purchasing power.

How sad that the government feels a life they ruined is worth so little.

What is a human life worth?

SF Source Activist Post Juj 2018

One thought on “Wrongfully Imprisoned for 31 Years

  1. Sounds like it was his Karma to me! Life is Karma, and Karma is Life! Without error, there is no growth! In this schoolhouse we call our Universe, People need to learn to take 100% responsibility for everything that happens in their lives!

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