Tuesday 27 March 2007

Gary Lamar James wrongful-imprisonment settlement offer rejected


Gary Lamar James wrongful-imprisonment settlement offer rejected: Alan Johnson has this story in the Columbus Dispatch, entitled "Wrongfully jailed man offered lower settlement," on compensation offered to Ohio death row exoneree Gary Lamar James of less than half the amount awarded co-Ohio death row exoneree Timothy Howard last year. AP has more here.
Excerpt:
...If an agreement is not reached, James' case will go to trial April 30 before Common Pleas Judge David Cain.

"We offered to try and mediate the amount and that was turned down," [James attorney James D.] Owen said. "Essentially, we were told that unless we made an offer that was less of 40 percent of what Tim got, we would be going to trial. If that's what they want to do, fine, we'll go to trial."

Owen said [Franklin County Prosecutor Ron] O'Brien's office would be "attempting to defend the indefensible" because James' case would expose allegations of perjury by a police fingerprint expert as well as misconduct by Tom Jones, the now-retired lead investigator in the old case.

O'Brien declined to discuss negotiations, but he said he expects the matter will go to trial. ...
(Some earlier coverage of Timothy Howard and Gary Lamar James cases is here and here. AP report on death of Timothy Howard on Monday is here.)

1 comment:

Brint Montgomery said...

Wow, this is a pretty bad situation. I too have been interested, lately, in wrongful imprisonment, and have recently written an article on the subject. Maybe you'd like it. Check it out on my blog:

http://brintmontgomery.blogspot.com