Not many of us will ever be able to imagine what it's like to be told you're going to spend the rest of your life in prison for a crime you didn't commit. If you were to times the pain of your girlfriend making you watch Love Actually by a minimum of 1,000 then it might get you about a quarter of the way to understanding.
However, when it gets to the point of when your sentence is finally overturned and you're once again a free man, you'd accept a hell of a lot of compensation for the time you've spent behind bars.
Lawrence McKinney, who was wrongly convicted of rape in 1978, was released in 2009 after a DNA test found he was innocent, but was only offered $75 to compensate for his 31 years in prison.
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Entering prison in Memphis, Tennessee as a 29-year-old, Lawrence had to watch the majority of his middle-aged years pass him by as an inmate, as he was was sentenced to 115 years in prison - 100 years for the rape and 15 years for the theft of the victim's television.
Credit: CNN
According to the Independent, McKinney could be eligible for up to $1 million, but the state's parole board has already declined his exoneration case twice.
"I don't have no life, all my life was taken away," he told CBS News.
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In September of this year, the Tennessee parole board voted unanimously to deny hearing his exoneration case.
"Being exonerated would put me on a standard with everyone else in society," he told The Tennessean. "I didn't get a chance to build a career or buy a home. I lost all my 20s, 30s and 40s, but I'm a servant of the Lord and any blessing I get I just want for my wife."
A Change.org petition, which calls for his exoneration, has reached more than 10,000 signatures so far.
Featured image credit: CNN
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Prison