An Update Post and Guess How Much Coin Judge Judy Pulls?

For those of you who haven't heard of the Jena 6, please, please read the previous post. Thank you.

Jena 6 Update: Kelly and Diane have respectively mentioned (in the comments of the Jena 6 post) that NPR once again aired a news story on the Jena 6, and that the Jena 6 will finally see some prime time coverage on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. Also, the NAACP has joined to help defend the Jena 6. I believe today was supposed to be the day for an organized march in Jena in support of the Jena 6, but perhaps that got delayed or postponed because the sentencing of one of the Jena 6 has also been delayed. For more info check out this great piece from the Blogger News Network. Among the things it mentions is a recent forum in Jena organized by the DOJ. One would think the US Attorney for the region would be outraged, though diplomatically so. Unfortunately that's not the case. Check out the BNN piece, some of the quotes from the US Attorney are baffling.

Troy Davis Update: On the 4th of July I posted about Troy Davis who is on death row despite the strong case that he is innocent, and certainly deserves (at the very least) a new trial. For more info, check out that post. Once again I must state that I learned about the plight of Troy Davis thanks to the wonderful Yllwdaisies who blogged about it. Well, the supercool Yllwdaisies has posted an update. Less than 24 hours before his execution date, Troy Davis was granted a stay of execution. Unfortunately this stay lasts a maximum of 90 days. The stay was granted on July 16. For those of you who feel, as I do, that Troy Davis is living a nightmarish injustice, please take action asking the Georgia State Board of Pardons & Paroles to take further action on his behalf. Thank you. (Once again special thanks to Yllwdaisies for posting about this.)

I've mentioned wrongful convictions before and I truly feel it is an incredibly important issue. I really cannot under stress it. Anyway, I just wanted to link to a recent case in which 4 men were awarded $102 million dollars for being framed by the FBI and spending over 30 years in prison. Unfortunately, 2 of the men died in prison. While the award is a pittance compared to what the men endured, it does roughly come out to $1 million dollars for every year sentenced. Unfortunately this type of compensation is rare in wrongful convictions. Currently, only 22 states even have compensation statutes. Though even these vary from state to state. Some include stipulations invalidating compensation for those wrongfully convicted by coerced confessions. There is also no fixed sum or range of sum for compensation. Recently, Congress and the President recommended $50k for every year of false imprisonment, and an additional $50k (so $100k total) for every year on death row. Let me reiterate that this is only a recommendation and the 22 states that due have compensation statues vary in their sum/range numbers. I'm not sure about you, but if I was wrongfully incarcerated I'd be demanding a lot more than $50k a year, and way more than $100k a year for being on death row. There are also many other issues such as public acknowledgement of the wrongful conviction, some states have inmates waive their right to sue in order to take a DNA test or do not expunge their record, as well as job and life training to catch up for lost time. As you may have guessed, I summarized the above (regarding post-wrongful conviction issues) from the Innocence Project. They have a great section dedicated to such an important topic of the wrongful conviction issue. For those interested, please check it out (it's actually a quick read, though you might be dumbfounded by some of the facts presented).

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This is a bit random, but I had to share it. The other day Reuters posted a list of the top salaries on television. Before I begin, I must ask, how much do you think Judge Judy makes a year? The mighty Harpo of course took the top spot with a whopping $260 million. This might be a little bit out of context since she owns/produces the show, but yeah, this seems to be just her profit from the show (not including the parts of the empire: magazine, Dr. Phil, merchandise, radio, etc) -- scary. In second place is Simon Cowell from American Idol who brings in $45 million a year. Cowell also does some "producing" (music and otherwise) so I'm not sure if the entire sum is for his appearance as a judge, but it is probably safe to say much of it is. Once again pretty scary. And in third place we have, that's right people, Judge Judy herself. Believe it or not, Judge Judy takes down $30 million a year. I'm not sure what her off-camera duties are, if she owns the show like Oprah or what, but no matter how this is drawn up, it's still $30 freakin' million dollars. Wow, Judge Judy pulls down more than A-Rod.

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure which of the three is the most shocking.