OR SPEND 24 YEARS IN PRISON FOR RAPE THAT YOU DID NOT COMMIT?

Quote :

"NEWTON, N.C. -- A man who spent almost 24 years in prison after he was convicted of rape has now been found innocent of the crime. A three-judge panel ruled Friday that Willie Grimes did not rape and kidnap a 69-year-old woman from Hickory in 1987. Grimes' lawyer presented evidence during the weeklong hearing that showed police did not question a half-dozen people who said Grimes was somewhere else when the rape happened. They also showed that two fingerprints found at the home where the rape happened were linked to another man, who has been charged with several rapes during the 1970s. District Attorney Jay Gaither apologized to Grimes, who was released on parole in May. Grimes says his first step will be to get himself off the state's sex offender registry. "

10/5/2012 8:29:30 PM

I guess I'd rather be raped...

because that beats rotting away in prison for 24 years and getting repeatedly raped there.

10/5/2012 9:03:32 PM

I'm with duke.


Wait... Preggers ?

10/5/2012 9:04:17 PM

I'm with duke.


Wait... Preggers ?

10/5/2012 9:04:17 PM

I'm with duke.


Wait... Preggers ?

10/5/2012 10:29:49 PM

Probably raped.

But I think he's gonna get that $Cash Money compensation from the government so it's not all bad.

10/5/2012 10:34:11 PM

racism

10/5/2012 10:36:40 PM

I'm with duke.


Wait... Preggers ?

10/5/2012 11:25:27 PM

Its a common misconception that these people become millionaires after this but people don't get cash from the government for this shit. Sometimes they can sue a certain prosecutor if there was deliberate obstruction but most of the times there is not enough evidence after all this time and the status quo usually protects the offenders.

10/6/2012 12:33:41 AM

^ You are stupid, if they prove your INNOCENCE there is essentially nothing that will stop the Governor from giving you a Pardon of INNOCENCE which AUTOMATICALLY grants compensation, and in this guys case he would get he MAXIMUM, not in the millions, but enough to get his life off to a GREAT start.

10/6/2012 12:39:12 AM

He'll get $20,000 per year of incarceration, which means he gets $480,000 to set up a new life for himself and live on for the rest of his life. Considering he likely has no marketable skills, I highly doubt it will last that long.

10/6/2012 1:17:50 AM

Uh this guy is 65, he would be at/approaching retirement. HE IS A SENIOR CITIZEN NOW.

If I did the math right he was 41 when he was put in jail.

10/6/2012 1:29:56 AM

Quote :

"Willie J. Grimes, 65, told the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission that he had no idea why police wanted to arrest him in the fall of 1987 and that he offered to take a lie detector test when he found out he was the suspect in the rape of a 69-year-old woman. But police didn't take him up on the offer. Grimes said he also wanted police to collect hair samples from him for testing against a rape kit. "I knew I was innocent, and I knew that if they had something, mine wouldn't match whatever they had, because I didn't do anything," he said. Grimes was convicted less than a year later on two counts of first-degree rape and one count of second-degree kidnapping in the Oct. 24, 1987, crime. He is serving his sentence at Gaston Correctional Center, a minimum security prison in Dallas, N.C."

.

Quote :

"Grimes told the Innocence Commission that he had met the victim only once. It was a month before the crime when he had asked to use her phone to report a disturbance involving a man named Albert Lindsay Turner at the home of his friend, who was the victim's neighbor. But she never allowed him in the house and called police for him, Grimes said. He said he didn't know she had been raped until his arrest. That afternoon, he returned home from work to learn that police were looking for him. He asked his girlfriend take him to the Hickory police station to find out why. "I didn't have any idea, because I knew I didn't do anything," he said. "That's the reason I went up there – to find out." Investigators never tried to talk to him after they arrested him. He told commissioners that, if they had, he would have cooperated."

Quote :

"A State Bureau of Investigation analyst testified Monday that fingerprints on a banana matched Turner, now 65, who has a long criminal record, with several convictions of assault on a female as well as assault with a deadly weapon and felony breaking and entering. Also at issue in the case is the victim's identification of Grimes. She initially identified him in a photo line-up but later on in court was indecisive about who he was. On a third occasion, she identified Grimes' attorney as her attacker, the attorney testified Monday. Several people also testified in Grimes' trial that they saw him before, during and after the time of the attack and that he could not have committed the crime. Investigators did find a hair that was "microscopically consistent" with Grimes', Troy Hamlin, a former hairs analyst for the state, testified Tuesday. But he said he couldn't say for certain that the hair – the only piece of physical evidence linking Grimes to the crime – matched him. Hair science has changed drastically since the advent of DNA technology, Hamlin said, and hair analysis is now used as a screening technique before DNA analysis – the only way to prove identity. Max Houck, an expert in microscopic hair comparison, testified that he would have likely recommended to prosecutors not to use the hair if there were no strong circumstantial evidence in the case. Today, he said, he would recommend a microscopic examination and then have DNA testing on it. But the hair cannot be tested again. All of the evidence, with the exception of the fingerprints on the banana, was inexplicably destroyed several years after the trial, a staff attorney investigating the case for the Innocence Commission said. The Innocence Commission is expected to wrap up the hearing on Wednesday. That's also when it could decide if Grimes' case should go passed along for a judicial review."

[Edited on October 6, 2012 at 1:34 AM. Reason : .]

10/6/2012 1:33:09 AM

this shit pisses me off almost more than actual rape itself

(ok not really, I just wanted to pretend to be controversial)


people that get incorrectly jailed for any length of time over a year deserve reparations out the ass

I didn't read to see if he actually got any, such as a monetary reward

but this only seems fair


a year in prison can do any man good, except for the ass pain

they can get buff and in shape, get free food, and .... well ok I can't think of many other perks but still

10/6/2012 1:42:32 AM

Quote :

"He'll get $20,000 per year of incarceration, which means he gets $480,000 to set up a new life for himself and live on for the rest of his life. Considering he likely has no marketable skills, I highly doubt it will last that long."

Considering he's now eligible for SS and Medicaid I'd say he will be fine. How many people in his age and demographic group do you think retire with a half million dollars in savings?

It doesn't make up for the time spent in prison by any means, but it's certainly better than nothing.

10/6/2012 8:40:25 AM

His SS payment will be a lot lower considering he only paid in half his life.

10/6/2012 9:11:54 AM

all i said is that they don't become millionaires. 480k is nice but its not worth 24 years.

10/6/2012 8:57:46 PM

After taxes, $480k will become something around $336k. Assuming Grimes lives another 15 years (to around the average life expectancy), that's $22.4k a year. That should be reduced some due to initial getting out of jail expenses (clothing, pots, pans, household goods, transportation, etc.).

There's no reason for Grimes to be destitute, but, even with a $480k payment, he definitely won't be living the high life.

10/6/2012 10:11:16 PM

If I am not mistaken they have upped the compensation to $40000 or $50000 with a $750k maximum, I'm to lazy to look it up right now.

^ To NET $22k+ a year is NOT bad at all. That's like making $30k a year, and that not bad at all really - obviously not the best, but MORE than a livable wage.

[Edited on October 7, 2012 at 2:33 AM. Reason : /]

10/7/2012 2:31:54 AM

That's why i said he won't be destitute, but won't be living the high life. Maybe it would've helped had I CAPITALIZED some of the WORDS.

10/7/2012 2:55:17 AM

In fact it DOES help.

10/7/2012 2:57:45 AM

Does it REALLY?

10/7/2012 3:00:28 AM