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Tampa man wrongfully imprisoned for nearly four decades to receive $14m (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Robert DuBoise, sentenced over a 1983 rape and murder he did not commit, says he hopes others in his position now ‘get justice’

A Tampa, Florida, man who has been authorized to receive $14m for spending nearly four decades in prison over a rape and murder which he did not commit says he hopes his case makes it easier for the unjustly convicted to achieve justice before it’s too late for them.

“I’m just grateful,” Robert DuBoise told the New York Times of the compensation that Tampa’s city council voted to pay him to settle a lawsuit over his wrongful conviction. He said he hoped others in his position now “get justice and can move on without having to spend the rest of their life fighting the system that has already wronged them”.

DuBoise was 18 at the time that 19-year-old Barbara Grams was raped and beaten to death as she walked home from her Tampa restaurant job in August 1983. A medical examiner determined that someone had bitten Grams on one of her cheeks, prompting investigators to take bite samples from multiple men, including DuBoise.

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 8 months ago (6 children)

$14m seems far too low:

40 years at $350,000 per year
480 months at $29,170 per month
14,600 days at $960 per day

Those don't sound too bad until you get to:

350,400 hours at $40 per hour.

$40 an hour in exchange for losing most of your life - and the vast majority of your best years - is a fucking disgrace.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

not to mention the need for psychological damage compensation. The guy lived 40 years with people around him, his friends and maybe relatives thinking that he brutally raped and murdered a young girl. I would have gone crazy probably, and die of stomach cancer or sth.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

I agree he should receive a higher compensation, but have no idea what that should be. I can't look at it in terms of dollars per hour and think of an appropriate amount worth giving up 40 years of life. If I was in that position I don't think 1billion would be fair.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Is the 14m taxable?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I saw it differently, I was pleasantly surprised to see an amount that high because now he has the remainder of his life, maybe 30 to 40 years, to spend 14 Million USD. He could buy a home and car and still have enough for a modest retirement, if he chooses to.

If he invests the remainder into VYM then the dividends alone would be more than my annual salary.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

No amount of money is worth 40 years

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Agreed, but if a person were given a sum of money then that amount would seem about appropriate to me. Minimum 8M depending on legal fees, but preferably closer to 40M if we want him to be extra well off. We cannot undo the past.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

Is your salary worth 40 hours a week?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

It should be total FU money. The state should give him free healthcare, free public transportation, free legal services, free public utilities, and free internet.