A story emerged in Britain recently which shocked many people.
After a woman was assaulted by a stranger, the police arrested a man that they said was the criminal. Despite having little evidence that suggested he was guilty, the police charged the man. At the trial, he was found guilty and sent to prison. After spending 17 years in prison, all the while fighting to have his case looked at again, the man was released. Then d.n.a. evidence was found which proved that the man was totally innocent of the assault.
So the falsely imprisoned man is claiming compensation from the government for the 17 years he lost in prison. When the rules for claiming compensation after miscarriages of justice were explained to him, he discovered that he might have to pay the government hundreds of thousands of pounds in order to cover his “room and board” for the time he spent in jail. In other words, if the government wrongly sends somebody to prison in Britain, they will then force the innocent victim to pay for the accommodation and food costs of the time they spent in a government jail.
I wonder how good the room service was in his cell?
Most people who heard about this in the news
were amazed by it. It makes me think of
a political prisoner in the old Soviet Union.
After the government executed the prisoner by shooting them in the back
of the head, they would then charge the executed man’s family for the cost of
the bullet.
All governments are heartless, though some are more heartless than others.
Vocabulary:
a miscarriage of justice – A case in which
the wrong person is punished for a crime, or is unfairly treated by the justice
system of trials, appeals, etc.
room and board – accommodation and food
No comments:
Post a Comment