Rickey Johnson holds his release papers as family members gather around shortly before noon on Monday, Jan. 14, the day he was released on a wrongful conviciton of rape.
Rickey Johnson, who was freed in January after serving 25 years in Louisiana’s Angola prison for a rape he didn’t commit, will receive $150,000 in compensation from the state for his wrongful incarceration. While Johnson says that no amount of money could ever replace the years he lost, he is looking forward to using the money to start a new business making leather goods such as belts and wallets.
“Rickey Johnson lost more than a quarter of a century, nearly his entire adult life, to a wrongful conviction. He had three young children when he was arrested, and a fourth was born shortly after he was incarcerated; all of those children are now adults,” said Vanessa Potkin, the Innocence Project staff attorney representing Johnson.
Read the full story here. (Leesville Daily Leader, 07/07/08)
Watch a new Innocence Project video of Johnson and fellow Louisiana exoneree Calvin Willis reuniting after Johnson’s release.
Johnson’s compensation comes under a state law that pays exonerees $15,000 for each year they served, to a maximum of $150,000. While Louisiana is one of 25 states with a compensation law, the amounts provided in the law are well behind the federal standard of $50,000 per year served, with no maximum. Several states, including Texas, Utah and Florida, have recently passed laws matching the federal amount, and the Innocence Project strongly supports efforts by lawmakers to bring state compensation laws in line with federal recommendations to include critical social services as well as financial payments.
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2 comments:
I was wrongfully incarcerated in the 22nd Judicial Disrtict in St. Tammany PArish, Louisiana for a false allegation of Aggravated Rape of a 29 year old man. I was arrested on Febuary 29,2008 and released on Febuary 8,2010 after the court had a competnecy hearing of the alleged victim and he was found by expery testiminy to be a liar, incompetent(permanent), and he wa smanipulated into trying to manufacture something about me. It started out as a accusation of groping, then it went to licking his crouch on the outsid eof his clothing, then two months later, while being detained, it was upped to aggravated rape. THe charge was officially dismissed on August 16,2011 and now I am wanting to be compensated for wrongful incarceratin, police misconduct in an investigation bby manufacturing/fabricating evidence, witnesss statements, etc., being falsly accussed and I want to file relief against 8 people who were responsible for me being detained without a trial or bond. I ahve no felony criminal conviction record nor do I have ever been in trouble like that before. It was all lies and I have all the transcripts/minutes of the hearings and of the dismissal of the charge(s). I wa snever billed for the sexual battery of the infirmed but I was for the aggravated Rape charge. Iy wa sall so rediculous and pethetic, it make sme sick. I have been waiting for almost 4 years for all of this to be over. I want the charges exopunged off the arrest record since the charges ar enon-conviction charges and I am seeking an attorney to get me relief on a contengency basis, for I have no money caus eI am trying to recorver from being detained for two years for something I didn't do. PLease can someone help me? 228-216-6845, 8052 McDonald ROad, Pass Christian, MS 39571.
Ray Smith
An update, I filed a law suit against several people regarding the above, but after nine months, no money, I voluntarily dismissed the case in Federal Court. SO I till am healing from the traumatic experience of those years gone by.
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