Andrew Wilson
Life for the falsely convicted many times too often lead to horrible situations; often behind bars. For example, Andrew Wilson had lost 32 years of his life in prison before actually being freed. Innocentproject.org explains that “Wilson plans to move to St. Louis to be with his 96-year-old mother, Margie Davis, who has been a tireless advocate for his exoneration since his arrest”. 32 years of this man’s life was lost on a false conviction of a stabbing. Wilsons attorneys state that “key pieces of evidence were never turned over to the defense during the trial”. Andrew Wilson was 29 at the age of his conviction.
Source :
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=5111
https://www.innocenceproject.org/andrew-wilson-released-after-32-years/
Kalief Browder
Another example of a false conviction that had become viral was the story of Kalief Browder. Kalief Browder was sentenced to 3 years in prison for the false accusation of stealing a backpack. Browder was 16 years of age when he was convicted. Kalief was sent to Rikers Island and over and over denied bail for a crime he had no part in. His life in prison was horrible. Kalief explained that the guards would starve him as well as repeatedly beat him. His prison time included one of the worst forms of punishment in jail today: solitary confinement. Kalief would be forced to be alone for 23 hours every day. As a teen, this would indeed be an extremely traumatic experience. So traumatic than two years after his release Kalief Browder committed suicide after never being able to recover from his time in prison.
Source :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIlSqk_pfbA
False convictions have hurt many people and taken away time that they will never get back regardless of the money paid. National Registry of Exonerations database shows that 2,265 exonerees served a total of 20,080 years in prison. 2,265 people alone have served time  9 and a half times the age of the united states of America. This is a tremendous amount of time wasted. In addition, Radley Balko from the Washington Post explains that “Between lawsuits and state statutes that award fixed compensation for wrongful convictions, state and municipal governments have paid out $2.2 billion to exonerees”(Balko). Not only is time wasted, but money is also wasted. This money is certainly needed for the exonerees however had our system allowed these people the justice they deserve this money could have been used on helping other parts of our country, including benefits for the poor, better healthcare, and maybe even correcting the justice system itself. False convictions not only waste time for inmates but also costs a lot and takes more time outside to prepare another trial.
Source :
ve-stolen-at-least-20000-years-from-innocent-defendants/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.42eb4365c99e
