Meet the Politician Who Thinks a Wrongfully Convicted Man Was ‘Lucky’ to Get Out After 11 Years

The Arkansas
Project‘s Nic Horton has an update on
last week’s story about Gyronne Buckley, a man denied
compensation by the state legislature even though he was wrongfully
convicted and incarcerated for 11 years.

Horton interview state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson (R), who heads the
Judiciary Committee and voted to deny Buckley’s compensation.
Horton comes away unpersuaded by Hutchinson’s
explanation:

When special prosecutor Larry Jegley chose not to retry Buckley,
Hutchinson said:

…the state did him a favor by not putting him or the
taxpayers through that and released him. And, uh, his conviction
was expunged, and that — I know eleven years is a long time, but if
you look at it from his perspective, if he truly is innocent,
that’s a travesty of justice. If you look at it from a prosecutor’s
side, the guy’s guilty and he only served a third of his sentence.
That could also be called a travesty of justice.

I hope that Hutchinson is wrong. Do prosecutors actually believe
that those who receive trials which are so unfair that their
sentences are overturned should really be in prison anyway? Is
there any prosecutor who believes that escaping from a thirty-year
sentence based on an unfair trial is a travesty of justice?

Hutchinson expanded on this logic:

Mr. Buckley could’ve seen another 20 years if Jegley had
taken him back to trial. Jegley chose not to and said ‘I think
justice has been done and we’re going to –’ instead of jumping for
joy and being happy, he turns around and sues the state.

I don’t want to put words in Hutchinson’s mouth, but I think
he’s arguing here that if Buckley had a more sophisticated
understanding of the criminal justice system, he’d be grateful that
he got off easy with an unfair trial and the 11 years behind bars
that came with it.

Read the full interview
here.