Can Texas afford $1.4 million mistakes? Ask, Anthony Graves, who just received a check for his wrongful imprisonment in this amount from Texas Comptroller Susan Combs. With current lack of money available and budget slashing in necessary Texas public programs, mistakes like these just shouldn’t happen.
Currently, the Texas Justice System budget includes approximately $3.3 billion in annual state spending for public safety and corrections, plus another $175 million for the court system. Additional millions are spent by counties and municipalities across the state, as well as by the federal government.
It would seem that with such a large budget to work with, the Texas Justice System, wouldn’t have so many exoneration's/mistakes. However, currently out of the 28 states that exonerated inmates, since October 27, 2010, Texas is ranked 3rd, with 12 exoneration's. These include Anthony Graves, who was incarcerated for 18 years for the murders of a family of six in Somerville, Texas; and, Robert Springsteen who was convicted in the deaths of four teenage girls, in what is known as the Yogurt Shop murders in 1991.
The Timothy Cole Compensation Act allows for $80,000 for every year incarcerated and a lifetime annuity to be paid to exonerated prisoners. Under this act; however, Anthony Graves wasn’t entitled to any money because he wasn’t listed as “not guilty,” so Governor Rick Perry signed a new law that allowed him to receive his $1.4 million and health benefits.
While I agree that anyone exonerated of a crime should be fully compensated, it seems that Texas can’t afford to make such expensive mistakes. We are an economy in struggle, and with an ever-growing population, money is needed to improve our current conditions. According, to the Innocence Project; in Texas, state leaders are awaiting a commission study on the effects of innocence-related laws on eyewitness identification, the recording of interrogations and post-conviction DNA testing. While it seems that Texas is trying to right its wrongs, there needs to be an overhaul within the state’s justice system to bring down our numbers of exonerated prisoners and in turn reduce spending; in laments terms, we need to stop wrongly convicting so we can save money.
I agree that making mistakes of this nature are detrimental to the Texas economy. One might argue that mistakes such as this are simply unacceptable. However, I think you should look at this issue from a different perspective. You say that Texas is ranked 3rd in number of exonerations out of the 28 states that engage in such a practice. However, consider the possibility that this might be a positive statistic. While I agree that it isn’t right to have incorrectly sentenced a totally innocent person, we’re all human and prone to error. It would be even worse to follow through with a death sentence of said innocent person, only to find out he wasn’t guilty after his death. Consider also the possibility that our exoneration rate is as high as it is because evidence in the cases of the other states may not have been sufficient for exoneration. Perhaps theses states make even more mistakes than Texas does, only they are never brought to light, and these convicts are allowed to die. Even though I agree that exonerations are a burden to the Texas economy, I believe that no matter what the costs, a high exoneration rate can be considered an overall good. Put in this context, Texas ranks 3rd in saving innocent victims from being killed. Doesn’t sound too bad anymore, does it?
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