State to Spend $2.7M on Wrongful Conviction Settlements for Two Cleveland-Area Men

The statistics on wrongful convictions are unsettling. Ohio recently decided to spend $2.7 million on two men from the Cleveland area who were wrongfully imprisoned for years, if not decades. Until you sit with the number, it seems significant. The math becomes almost offensive when you divide it by the time that was taken, the birthdays that were missed, and the parents who were buried while the men were imprisoned.

The settlement is important, though. It’s the state admitting that something went horribly wrong in the only language that governments actually speak: money.

The two men, who were from the greater Cleveland area, were found guilty in cases that subsequently came to light. The evidence was reexamined. Witnesses were discredited or recanted. Under contemporary analysis, the kind of forensic claims that once seemed unassailable in a courtroom lost their shine. Now that the pattern is so well-known, you have to wonder how many more people are still incarcerated in Ohio while their own evidence is reexamined.

As you stroll past the Justice Center on Ontario Street in downtown Cleveland, you can’t help but notice how commonplace the buildings are where extraordinary errors are made. fluorescent-lit courtrooms. Decades of families waiting for verdicts have worn down the wooden benches. The quietness of the architecture never quite matches the weight of what takes place inside these rooms, where lives are sometimes misdirected.

The $2.7 million amount is in line with Ohio’s legal requirements for compensating those who were wrongfully imprisoned. For every year of wrongful incarceration, the state pays about $60,000 in addition to lost income and, occasionally, legal fees. It is formulaic, which is why it sounds that way. The formula was specifically designed by lawmakers to avoid the state having to negotiate the cost of a stolen life on an individual basis. Whether you’ve ever spent a night in a cell you didn’t belong in will likely determine how generous or stingy the formula is.

For years, proponents have worked to strengthen the processes that initially result in these convictions, such as more stringent eyewitness identification procedures, recorded interrogations, and increased access to DNA testing. A few reforms have been approved. Some stall. It seems that once the news cycle passes, the political desire to change criminal procedure quickly wanes.

The Cleveland settlements are noteworthy for reasons other than their monetary value. In Ohio, which has had more exonerations than its share over the previous ten years, it’s the total weight of cases like this. Researchers studying prosecutorial tactics, investigative tunnel vision, and the long tail of forensic evidence that failed have turned Cuyahoga County in particular into something of a case study.

Most likely, the two men will attempt to rebuild. The settlement can only partially address the practical, emotional, and financial aspects of that. Wire transfers do not restore relationships, employment, housing, or institutional trust. The money might be helpful. It’s also possible that, in light of everything that has come before, it feels like a formality.

The check from Ohio will clear. The more general question remains unanswered: how many more settlements will the state write before the system that generates them is seriously reconsidered?