Saturday, August 14, 2010

NY Times-Jailed Wrongfully For 27 Years, TX Man Ponders His Future

Michael A. Green, a Texas man who spent 27 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit: Michael Stravato/NY Times
(Story reported by James C. McKinley Jr. for the NY Times)

HOUSTON — Since a judge let him out of prison for a rape that prosecutors now say he did not commit, Michael A. Green has had trouble sleeping.

Late at night, he walks the neat, quiet sidewalks in the neighborhood where he is staying with an aunt, chain-smoking cigarettes, his mind spinning furiously with questions about why he was convicted 27 years ago and how to spend what is left of his life.

He also ponders, he says, whether to take a $2.2 million compensation payment from the State of Texas or file a civil lawsuit in the hope of exposing the truth about the investigation that led to his incarceration. To receive the compensation, he must waive the right to sue.

“What I really need to do is to make them pay for what they done to me,” he says. “Two-point-two million dollars is nothing when it comes to 27 years of my life, which I spent with mental torture and physical abuse.”

(click here to read the full story on the NY Times website)

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