Rebuilding a Life

By TChris, Section Innocence Cases
Posted on Fri Jun 20, 2008 at 10:42:49 PM EST
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Last October, TalkLeft called attention to Ronald Taylor, one of the innocent victims of the Houston Police Department's faulty lab work. After serving 12 years for a rape he didn't commit, a judge released him on the strength of new DNA evidence. That happened eight months ago. Since then:

He moved to Atlanta in October and reunited with the woman who patiently had waited for him. In December, they married. ... Taylor secured a job with an Atlanta restaurateur. But this spring, he left it and borrowed thousands for equipment to start his own business. He knew it was risky but said he was determined.

TAylor started his own lawn care business. Even better, he's been given a full pardon and he's been offered $700,000 to settle his claim against the state. He's thinking about it.

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Rebuilding a Life | 8 comments (8 topical)

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Wow!! He is thinking about it?? (none / 0) (#1)
by befuddledvoter on Fri Jun 20, 2008 at 11:09:12 PM EST

Is there any other option for compensation for him?? I know most states have no statutory compensaition that controls. I would take it and run. Of course, that is easy for me to say. I have not been wrongly convicted, yet.

He seems smart (none / 0) (#2)
by dianem on Fri Jun 20, 2008 at 11:17:09 PM EST

That much money can go a long way - or it can disappear quickly. If ever anybody deserved a bit of cash, this guy does.

700k, (none / 0) (#3)
by cpinva on Sat Jun 21, 2008 at 12:17:19 AM EST

and 5 minutes alone with the person responsible for his wrongful conviction.

seems only fair.

Wow. Nothing seems enough to make up for (none / 0) (#4)
by JavaCityPal on Sat Jun 21, 2008 at 12:46:20 AM EST

something like this.

I remember a young man who worked for one of the famous seafood restaurants in Seattle in the early 70's was convicted of rape. Evidence was heavily weighed in his favor, but the victim said it was him. After years in prison, he was released when the real rapist was caught. His former employer refused to give him his job back. He died of a heart attack in his early 30's.

It's surprising that he was able to (none / 0) (#5)
by DeborahNC on Sat Jun 21, 2008 at 02:43:40 AM EST

resume a fairly normal life again. I think that many people would be embittered and perhaps unable to get on with a productive life after having been incarcerated for 12 years and wrongfully convicted. Also, the fact that he had the personal confidence to pursue his own business speaks volumes about his personal strength.

I don't have a legal background, so I'm not familiar with the usual outcomes when people are wrongfully convicted and then released. But, from a psychological point of view, he seems to be handling it well. I'm heartened when I hear of cases like Mr. Taylor's.

Thanks for sharing that.

To me, it seems like (none / 0) (#6)
by Grace on Sat Jun 21, 2008 at 03:52:29 AM EST

$700K isn't nearly enough. I don't know what others who have suffered through similar circumstances have received though.

He obviously is a person of good character though, and his girlfriend saw that enough to wait for him for all these years. I hope life treats him far better from here on out!

I just read the story (none / 0) (#7)
by Grace on Sat Jun 21, 2008 at 04:37:55 AM EST

and this guy was in prison for 14 years, so I don't think $700K is enough, really. That's like $50K a year and he deserves better than that.

I was involved in a rape case many years ago. My roommate was raped by a man who climbed in my bedroom window than went down a long hall and raped her (I wasn't home at the time). He left fingerprints and other evidence all the way down the hall and in her bedroom and in other parts of our apartment.

A year after this happened, he was arrested, primarily because my roommate's brother-in-law worked for LE in a neighboring town. It turned out that this guy was our neighbor at the time. We didn't know him because his back patio was across the parking lot from our front door and we'd only lived there about six months. This did help to explain why someone had shot out the lights in our parking lot.

Anyway, this guy wasn't a newbie in court. This was something like his 7th rape arrest and he had also been arrested once for murder in another state. We were going to go to court because we were "so perfect" for a court case according to the DA.

We show up at court. This guy is tall and handsome. He has a beautiful tall wife too and two sweet little blond kids, approximately 2 and 4 years old.

Again, we don't know this guy. We are going mostly by the fingerprints (he left a 1/2 hand print on my window sill climbing in my window), pubic hairs, stuff like that. My roommate remembered the guys voice -- but this guy is a spokesperson for a company that is running ads on television!

Our jury had 6 people on it. Not the 12 you normally hear about.

Anyway, after a few days of trial, he was acquited. He claimed he knew us. He claimed he was friends with the maintenance man and that was why his fingerprints were all over the apartment. (Except, I know this was a lie regarding my window sill because I had a lot of little plants sitting on the window sill and a couch right below it -- and I frequently knocked the plants over by throwing my head back when laughing -- so I cleaned that window sill A LOT!)

Now, deep in my heart, I know this guy is guilty as sin. I fault the prosecutor in a lot of ways because they asked me questions in my deposition that they did not ask me in court. As for my roommate -- well, I never saw her again. We parted after she got raped because we immediately moved out of that apartment.

I've always been curious if this guy couldn't be convicted now based on DNA evidence? I guess the statute of limitations runs out pretty quickly on rape cases but I have to wonder if they couldn't get him for that murder charge they thought was his? But what would happen if they had already charged him and he had been found innocent?

I've looked him up on the internet and he's now a celebrity impersonator (and I really wouldn't want to tell you who he impersonates, but he's still a nice looking guy even though he's over 50). I also found something where he was arrested as a "felon with a gun." Evidentally, he's one of those Florida felons who manages to get a gun because Florida is so lax on checking up on those things. I don't know what his felony charge was. It surely wasn't for this particular rape.

So, long story which I told the long way -- I have a hard time agreeing with Jeralyn and others here who think we should be softer on criminals. Part of the reason why I don't think we should be softer is because there are a LOT of guilty people who never get charged, let alone convicted. Unfortunately, in other parts of the country, they have a habit of convicting people who are actually innocent. So how do you fix this mess?

I DON'T want to see the guilty go free, yet I don't want to see the innocent convicted.

Not enough compensation (none / 0) (#8)
by Dadler on Sat Jun 21, 2008 at 12:37:55 PM EST

A hundred grand a year tax-free at least. Though I understand psychologically why he would settle without lawsuit and try to get it over with and move on quickly, I also think the state's offer reflects their hope that, because of their 12 year negligence, he's so spent and exhausted that he hasn't the will to fight for more because he DOES want it over quickly.