http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20110502-editorial-graves-should-not-have-to-accept-an-iou-on-justice.eceGraves, wrongfully convicted of capital murder in 1994, was released in October after 18 years of incarceration, most of it on death row. A special prosecutor handling a retrial of his case cited fabricated evidence and unethical pressure on witnesses by her predecessor when prosecutors asked a state court to drop all charges. The court readily agreed.
The obvious next step would have been for Graves to receive compensation from the state under the Timothy Cole Compensation Act, which allots $80,000 to wrongfully convicted people for every year of their life taken by the state. Instead, because the court did not use the words “actual innocence” in its release order, Comptroller Susan Combs said the state should not pay. Despite criticism from Gov. Rick Perry — and pretty much everyone else — the comptroller has stood by this decision, which has prompted a lawsuit.
Now, while all of this is going on, an automated system in the Texas attorney general’s office tagged Graves for owing back payments of child support for 1998-2002. Why was he behind? The fact that he was locked up on death row might have had something to do with it. The person most responsible for a lack of support for Graves’ children during that time is former Burleson County District Attorney Charles Sebesta, the man who almost single-handedly forced the Graves case through the courts using lies by the real killer to convict a man with a solid alibi. But we digress.
/snip
So if you can't pay your child support because you are wrongfully imprisoned and the government that imprisoned you refuses you what they owe, they can imprison you again because you can't pay your child support.....
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