New York, NY – Authorities say New York City has agreed to pay $40 million to settle civil rights lawsuits filed by five people who claimed they were wrongfully convicted of murder in the Bronx.
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The New York Times reports (http://nyti.ms/1U8kB2l ) the Law Department said Thursday it had agreements with three plaintiffs and agreed to two more in principle.
The plaintiffs are to receive $8 million each. Their lawsuits accused two police detectives of misconduct during the investigation. Each of the plaintiffs spent over 17 years behind bars.
Three of the plaintiffs were convicted in the 1995 killings of a livery cab driver and a Federal Express executive. The other two were convicted only in the cab driver’s slaying.
The Law Department says the settlements are in the best interest of the city.
This is the result of overzealous prosecutors who, instead of seeking the truth, look to further their careers by clinching as many convictions as they can even at the expense of justice. The result is that innocent people, usually of lower income and education, are being imprisoned for long prison terms when they are innocent of any crime. Now, the city has to pay out millions to somewhat undo the gross injustice and the destroyed lives suffered by these individuals. What a system!
No wonder the city is broke!!
In the last 15 years, the City of New York had to shell out one billion dollars, ($1,000,000,000), for civil rights violations, police brutality, and false arrests and imprisonment. In the end, the billion dollars comes out of the pockets of the taxpayers of the City of New York, as well as the shareholders, of the various liability insurance carriers. If the overzealous prosecutors, and the cops who abuse their authority, were personally held financially accountable, it might have an impact on the reducing these kinds of cases. Yet, not one mayoral candidate, including the present occupant of Gracie Mansion, has ever once referred to the above, in their campagns. It is an absolute disgrace and a shanda!!
Why are the police interrogators and the procedures not paying for this? What’s their share to these wrong convictions, why aren’t they going to prison, true, the convicts are receiving money from the government, but those mamzeirim did something wilfully wrong, why aren’t they paying for it? Why are they still at this job? They should be hung, this prosecutor wants to advance his carrier, Al the way to becoming a judge in the high court, so he shows his iron fist, with no mercy, and this shmok Baharara is a typical example,