Joelle Farrell, Inquirer Trenton Bureau Posted: Sunday, March 17, 2013, 3:01 AM <\/p>\n
Two men spent more than a decade behind bars before DNA evidence exonerated them. After their release, one married, held a steady job, and earned a pension. The other is on welfare and lives with his mother. <\/p>\n
What separates their situations? Mainly, a river. <\/p>\n
While individual traits and circumstances surely played a role in the former inmates' differing destinies, prison reform advocates say it was crucial that one received a hand up from the state upon release and the other did not. <\/p>\n
Since 1997, New Jersey has compensated the wrongfully convicted with at least $20,000 for each year of incarceration. Lawmakers are considering raising the minimum to $50,000 per year and adding benefits, such as reintegration services, that are available to paroled inmates but not exonerated ones. <\/p>\n
Pennsylvania has no similar law. <\/p>\n
After serving 18 years for the murder of a McDonald's night manager in Duquesne, Pa., Drew Whitley of nearby Braddock left prison in 2006 with less than $100 earned working in the prison laundry, said Bill Mousher, an investigative reporter and director of the Innocence Institute of Point Park University, which worked on Whitley's case. <\/p>\n
\"Drew Whitley got absolutely screwed; he's got nothing,\" Mousher, an assistant professor at the Pittsburgh school, said last week. \"I saw him last fall. He was not looking good. He's basically destitute.\" <\/p>\n
David Shephard, the first New Jersey inmate to have his conviction overturned by DNA evidence, in 1995 received $250,000 from the state after serving more than a decade in prison for rape. <\/p>\n
The money helped him repay his family for lawyer fees, court costs, and other hardships caused by his incarceration. It gave him a cushion to restart his life at age 33. He began working in maintenance for the City of Newark, later landing a job in family services with Essex County. <\/p>\n
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More: Joelle Farrell, Inquirer Trenton Bureau Posted: Sunday, March 17, 2013, 3:01 AM Two men spent more than a decade behind bars before DNA evidence exonerated them. After their release, one married, held a steady job, and earned a pension. The other is on welfare and lives with his mother. Continue reading
\nFreed by DNA , 1 thrives, 1 struggles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"