Eideard

Alan Newton served over 21 years in prison for a rape, robbery and assault he didn’t commit, before DNA evidence exonerated him in 2006. Now, he was awarded $18.5 million by a jury for his wrongful imprisonment, one of the largest ever amounts awarded for wrongful imprisonment in NYC. “It hasn’t really sunk in. It’s so emotional. It’s something I’ve been fighting for the last four years, since I came home. I’m just glad things worked out at the end of the day,” he told the Times.

Newton’s cause had been taken up by The Innocence Project, which works on cases “where postconviction DNA testing of evidence can yield conclusive proof of innocence.” The jury ruled that the city had violated Newton’s constitutional rights, and found two police officers liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress for failing to produce Mr. Newton’s evidence when requested. Newton had asked for DNA evidence in 1994, 1997 and 1998; the Innocence Project was only able to get it in 2005.

The Innocence Project has helped exonerate a number of people in NYC in the last decade, including a former postal worker who spent 18 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

Since being released from prison, Newton, 49, spent two years as a full-time student at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn completing his degree; now he works as a research associate at the Black Male Initiative of the City University of New York, and plans on applying to law school. “I want to work with people that really need that legal assistance that’s just not there for them. There are so many issues where people need competent counsel, and it’s just not out there. I think I’ll jump into it with both arms.”

When will prosecutor stop being persecutors? When will judges insure equal rights before the law? Do you think we’ll ever run out of stories on injustice like this one?

The corpse of an American mountaineer who fell to his death in the Canadian Rockies more than two decades ago has been found.

Hikers in Jasper National Park, Alberta found the body of William Holland, 38, last month. He tumbled down a mountain in 1989 when a snow outcrop collapsed.

The climber’s body had been preserved by glacial ice, said Garth Lemke, public safety expert with Parks Canada.

“He was basically in a deep freeze for the last 21 years,” Mr Lemke said.

Holland of Gorham, Maine, had reached the summit of an ice climb on Snow Mountain. An outcropping of snow he was standing on gave way and he plunged 1,000ft…

Mr Lemke said at least two other climbers since the 1970s who went missing in Jasper National Park have never been found.

Sooner or later, someone would have invented frozen food. Clarence Birdseye just happened to be first on the street with a satisfactory product.

Hey – it makes as much sense as some of the comments we get.