Politicians Deny Compensation to Man Wrongfully Incarcerated for 11 Years

Looks like Arkansas
politicians don’t like admitting they were wrong, let alone making
up for past mistakes. The Arkansas Project‘s Nic Horton
reports on the story of Gyronne Buckley, who was wrongfully
imprisoned for more than a decade and is now seeking compensation
after the state’s Supreme Court ordered him released. Buckley’s
compensation has been denied so far, and one member of the
legislature even told reporters that the man should consider
himself “blessed” that he was released at all.

The facts of the case,
according to Horton:

In 1999, Buckley was convicted of two counts of “delivery of a
controlled substance” and sentenced to two consecutive
life sentences. The Arkansas Supreme Court vacated Buckley’s
sentencing in 2000 and ordered the lower court to resentence him:
the Clark County Circuit Court responded by resentencing him to two
consecutive terms of 28 years.

Buckley was originally convicted based on audio tapes that
allegedly captured conversations of two drug deals between Buckley
and an undercover agent. But — after Buckley had already served
more than a decade in prison — it was discovered that evidence had
been withheld from Buckley’s attorneys by the state during his
initial trial. 

The withheld evidence included significant proof that an
informant’s testimony was unreliable: The informant misremembered
key detail of his accusations against Buckley and was coached by
the police to give the desired answers. One of the undercover
narcotics agents involved in Buckley’s conviction was also found to
have falsified evidence and lied on the stand in another case.

Buckley is now a free man. He should also be compensated for his
time behind bars, which was the result of gross misbehavior on the
part of law enforcement. The claim he put forth was $400,000, which
is about what the average resident of Arkansas would have made over
the course of Buckley’s 11 years behind bars.

The Arkansas Claims Commission approved the amount, but a state
senate committee rejected it. State Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, who
sits on the committee, said Buckley should feel “blessed that [he]
got acquitted on a technicality,” according to the
Democrat-Gazette.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel played a role in
encouraging the legislature to reject the compensation claim—an
unjust outcome, according to Horton.

Buckley will file a lawsuit against the state seeking fair
compensation.