Many States offer restitution to the exonerated. I strongly favor such laws; indeed I would go further, invoking the power of Congress under the Fourteenth Amendment to force all States to offer restitution.

I do not oppose a civil lawsuit against the recanter and especially against her mother, but doubt how much money would be recovered.

I would like to see lawsuits against rogue prosecutors, likely to have more money than the average false accuser. I do not know enough about this case, howeverl to say whether prosecutors should have dropped it even before the recantation.

But I stand by my opposition to imprisonment of voluntary recanters. Even if you reject my desire to encourage recantation, criminal prosecution faces serious practical obstacles. Start with the Miranda rule and related protections against self-incrimination. By the time all such tainted evidence is excluded, your chances of proving your case “beyond a reasonable doubt” have vanished.

The Duke Lacrosse false accuser, unmasked by the efforts of others, is a better example of someone deserving criminal prosecution. But even she is a rather pathetic, wretched creature, led on by a politically ambitious prosecutor. It is the prosecutior, Nifong, who should be sent to prison, for a term three times the total terms he intended for the victims of his frame-up, say 3 x 3 people x 10 years apiece = 90 years.

The comrades of the Cyber USSR hasten to assure Robert that they offer “no guarantee of ideological soundness for statements by Kanningam, a bourgeois fellow-traveler in our popular front against Trotskyism.”

For my own part, I foam at the mouth at the very mention of Trotsky…

PS to Robert:
As you value your life, stay away from the website
http://www.theonion.com/
Some of their so-called journalism might put too much strain on your heart…

Ms. Gibson seems to have committed perjury. Should we pat her on the head and send her on her way?

I understand your point about not wishing to discourage earnest recantation. Your solution does not seem satisfactory to me.

Others who agree with Hugo, feel free to defend your position.

Bob

Unreal.

I support the restitution claim against Wanetta Gibson and her mother. But save the prison for those whose lies are exposed by others.

Although I do not know the details of the case, perhaps indemnification should also be pursued against a DA’s office that should have known better even before the recantation.

That’s OK, Hugo. I oppose someone losing everything and spending time in prison because of a false accusation. I see you’re all about mercy. What about some mercy for Brian Banks? What about how he’s suffered? As the old question goes, where does he go to get his reputation back? Do you even give a damn?