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submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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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[-] flathead@lemm.ee 103 points 1 year ago

“Mark Zuckerberg made more than $28 billion this morning after Meta stock makes record surge” https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/02/business/meta-stock-surge-mark-zuckerberg/index.html

seems fair.

[-] spider@lemmy.nz 32 points 1 year ago

...your poster child for trickle-down economics. /s

[-] LufyCZ@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago

He didn't make money, his net worth went up.

Also, how is that related to this in ANY way

[-] spider@lemmy.nz 38 points 1 year ago

Zuckerberg made 2,000 times more in one morning for doing basically nothing, vs. what DuBoise made in almost four decades in a settlement for a wrongful conviction and imprisonment.

It's pretty easy to grasp if you don't overthink it.

[-] LufyCZ@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

He built a successful company, that's what he did :)

But still, it doesn't matter, sucks that it happened to the lad, but comparing him to Zuckerberg doesn't do absolutely anything for him, it's completely unrelated to his case.

[-] spider@lemmy.nz 10 points 1 year ago

comparing him to Zuckerberg doesn't do absolutely anything for him, it's completely unrelated to his case.

You're missing the point.

[-] LufyCZ@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Again, it doesn't do him any favors.

If you want to push your agenda, that's fine, but piggybacking off of a ruined life (in quite exceptional circumstances all things considered) doesn't do absolutely anything.

What's the point? Should the guy have gotten more? He can live like a king without a care for the rest of his life. If he has children, those can, too.

Or is it that Zuckerberg shouldn't be "allowed" to own his own company, which coincidentally is pretty successful?

Because if it's the latter, it's unrelated to this specific person, you could post it under a cute kitty vid and it'd have the same value.

[-] FlaminGoku@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago

He can easily get a low interest loan on that new worth going up.

[-] loobkoob@kbin.social 73 points 1 year ago

$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.

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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.

[-] DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 7 points 1 year 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.

[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago

-8 to 9 hours per day for sleep then.

[-] Patches@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago

If you cannot go home for you 'job' then they best be paying you.

This man didn't go home for 40 years straight.

[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 1 points 1 year ago

In his dreams he is free

[-] shugosha@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year 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.

[-] Tolstoshev@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

Your tax dollars at work /s

[-] moistclump@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Not to mention the tax dollars spent to house and feed an innocent man. And the salaries of the lawyers and cops involved to get him there.

[-] Fenrisulfir@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 year ago

Is he actually gonna get it or is there gonna be an appeal where he’s dragged through the courts again for years and only awarded $500k after being forced to pay $10 million in legal fees?

[-] boblives@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

It’s a settlement, which means the city agreed to pay the $14,000,000 instead of going to trial and risk a verdict of a much higher amount. So no there won’t be any appeals and he should see the money.

[-] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago

Just a forty year whoopsie daisy.

[-] Pantherina@feddit.de 18 points 1 year ago

How the fuck is money gonna fix this?

All prisons must go. Its inhumane to incarcerate people.

[-] iAmTheTot@kbin.social 32 points 1 year ago

That's an interesting take. What do you recommend be done with criminals? Especially violent ones?

[-] your_ancient_name@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

have you heard of restorative justice? it's a studied method that's proven more effective than prisons to rehabilitate offenders and heal the harm they've caused

short description

source

[-] Brawndo@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

Pass a law that says you can't be a violent criminal.

/s

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago
[-] Primarily0617@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

its a long article and i cant read

what do you do about cases where the victim doesnt want to engage in a dialogue with the offender?

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If you can't read, here's an online article reader you can use. Just select the entire content of the article and paste it as plain text on that site

[-] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago

The short answer to your question is that it's complicated - in the systems where restorative justice has the most potential to change things, it's still quite a radical approach and there's a lot to be figured out.

One way of addressing the problem you raise is that sometimes "surrogate victims" are used - people who have been victims of the same or similar crime. Apparently this has been quite effective in some instances, but ideally usage of this should be limited - one of the ongoing challenges is ensuring that the rehabilitation of offenders doesn't take precedence over the kind of two way healing that restorative justice is meant for

[-] Primarily0617@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

we shoot you straight into the phantom zone

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago
[-] Primarily0617@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

anything can be a prison for you if you make it one yourself

you need to think more positively

[-] Illuminostro@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

This is 'Murica, you damned commie! MONEY IS EVERYTHING!

[-] spider@lemmy.nz 11 points 1 year ago

says he hopes others in his position now ‘get justice’

Hopefully this includes Tommy Zeigler.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

reads the headline without context

Reality TV is going too far these days if you ask me..

this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
381 points (100.0% liked)

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