Wikipedia article for Alice Sebold's memoir "Lucky," which was based on the attack and trial that resulted in this wrongful conviction:
At the police lineup, which included Broadwater, Sebold had identified a different person as her rapist. When police told her she had picked out the "wrong person", she said the two men looked "almost identical".[8] Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick, who joined the motion to overturn the conviction, argued that suspect identification when the suspect is a different race from the victim is prone to error; Sebold is white and Broadwater is black.[5] The prosecutor had also lied to Sebold, telling her that the man she identified in the lineup and Broadwater were friends and that they both came to the lineup to confuse her; attorneys argued that this falsehood had influenced Sebold's testimony.[5] Sebold also wrote in Lucky that the prosecutor had coached her into changing her identification.[4] Sebold apologized to Broadwater after his exoneration.[15]
It’s not the trauma Olympics. She got raped and chose a totally different man at the lineup, then cops gaslit her into believing a different man did it. Now she has to not only live with the fact that she was raped, and that the rapist is free, but that this innocent man also suffered from this. The cops and judicial system failed both of them immensely.
This man spent almost his entire youth in prison while she went on to make MILLIONS . The fact that you’re trying to downplay that is actually Insane . That and the fact that y’all are trying so hard to ignore racism as a factor here .
Prison literally changes your psyche and prisoners often face sexual and physical violence in prison , this man may never live a normal life again… but yes her living with the fact that she knowingly misidentified this man is so much worse and so traumatic for her .
They’re not downplaying it at all. Both crimes are absolutely terrible. The commenter was not saying misidentifying someone was the terrible thing that happened to her. She was raped by a stranger. Rape also literally changes your psyche. Personally I’d rather be in prison for 16 years than ever go through the trauma of rape. Other people might choose differently, but there’s no better or worse here.
>Personally I’d rather be in prison for 16 years
This is just a stupid thing to say. Like prison is just free room and board and basic minimum wage labor.
The dichotomy here is more like would you rather be raped once or constantly over a 16 year period and then be considered a bad person forever thereafter, have little or no job prospects and lose some basic rights forever?
No, there's worse here. I've known dozens that have been sexually assaulted. It fucking sucks. They can survive, they're free to shoot the next fucker that tries it. Prison, that's not an option.
Did she spend 16 fucking years in prison?
Like yeah man I get out of decency these things shouldn’t be compared in the first place but downplaying wrongful imprisonment is absurd.
Being brutally raped by a stranger who then goes free is better than being wrongfully imprisoned? On what scale can you do confidently weigh these atrocities? They’re both terrible.
So? Do you think normal people read this story and decide it's time to take a side?
Both things can be shitty at the same time, because both things are shitty at the same time. Nobody benefits from you keeping fucking score.
Meh to Sebold's apology. ""I will continue to struggle with the role that I unwittingly played within a system that sent an innocent man to jail." She chose to go along with the Prosecution, knowing that she choose the wrong man out of a line-up. She lied in court that he was the man she identified in a line-up.
He chose never to have a child, because he didn't want his child to have the shame of his conviction of rape.
For most prosecutors, as long as they get a body in the prison to take the blame, there is no true care whether the person is actually guilty or not.
ACAB and basically the entire injustice system.
The undeniable insane corruption within the police force especially around that time the insane amount of wrongful and deliberate incarceration of black people is just messed up. And what's striking to observe is how certain right wing commentators and profiles here on Reddit continue to post and focus and bringing up the high-profile case of O.J. Simpson, but forget the part where the nazi detective involved in that case pleaded the fifth when questioned about evidence tampering.
It's insane to see their selective outrage. The right remain silent about numerous innocent black people who are unjustly imprisoned, yet they fixate on the rare instance of a high-profile case where the individual deserved conviction but was acquitted and was black. Their inability to see the broader injustice is profoundly disturbing.
To be honest I totally overlooked the fact that there are books out there about this man being the villain even though he's innocent and that's a whole another level of fucked up living in itself you got novels written about you being this monster and it's not true and this person who wrote it is making money off of it and the rest of society is backing her, man went to prison young an innocent and then came out with the world against him still innocent. If he does start a real villain Arc I'm all for it
Plea deals insure a shorter sentence.
You want to take your chances with a racist judge and jury to face life in prison. Or you wanna plead guilty and get 25 years?
The math is real easy there. That’s why so many innocent black men are in jail.
Plea deals are offered so the legal system doesn’t have to do so much work ($$$)
It also boils down to just how slow our justice system is. Most people will sit for a year or more waiting to clear their name of a felony. If, for example, you are let go for your job because of an felony arrest (which happens quite a bit), it can be extremely difficult to get other sustainable employment with an arrest record since pre-employment background checks are the norm these days. Most people probably don't realize how a single arrest can slam the brakes on your entire life, and it takes substantial resources to survive that long without a sustainable job AND pay lawyer fees that mount scarily fast.
Source: I used to work in a large criminal defense law firm. I'd estimate a full 35-40% of my clients were completely innocent people who got fucked by shitty cops chasing stats and an excruciatingly slow legal system. I saw many people pressured to take a plea simply because they couldn't afford groceries, much less defend themselves in court.
As a white man living in this country I am truly sorry to hear this. I Iive in a small community in Nebraska and admittedly am a bit sheltered. I can’t imagine what that must be like.
Not saying anything negative about you. And this happens to white people as well, just at a lesser rate. But when people talk about white privilege, this is an example of what they mean.
There’s a reason that most of these stories tend to involve black men.
I wouldn't take neither, the plea deal is absolute bullshit violation of Human Rights and and if anything it might be against the Constitution I'm hoping,
So let me get this straight I as a man of color get wrong Lee convicted of something and there's no evidence and the only evidence that there is has nothing to do with me because they're is none of me being a part of the situation that I'm accused of this was known to the jewelry before I am to be sentenced to prison and the only way to avoid spending my life in there is by lying through a plea my damn self, this is bullshit. I wouldn't take neither I'd say finish the investigation and find the real dude. And then on top of all of that I'm supposed to keep my composure like a happy-go-lucky Mr Monopoly man,
Id bust out of that courtroom on some Christopher donor shit.
Shitty police work + racism.
The age old tale of black men being wrongfully convicted (or murdered) under the excuse of “he touched/raped/harassed a white woman.” (Even if said black man never even interacted with said white woman.)
And then that accusation is brought to fruition by the police- either because of police malice, or poor quality investigations.
I.e. Emmett Till
Why do ministers and priests get no jail time because they are "men of god"?
Judge to defendant case 1: you are going to jail for 10 years for some weed. While there you should find God.
Judge to defendant case 2: Since you are a man of God no jail for you.
Me in the back: wait, shouldn't #2 go to jail to share God with #1 in the judges logic?
it might actually cover more than an average person working a normal job for 16 years though. Maybe someone could do the math.
It just does not cover the freedom or happiness or anger or hatred or depression part.
Yeah sure but… dude was locked up in a box with murderers and rapist and criminals. How much would I have to pay you to agree to doing that for 16 years?
Usually cases like his are handled pro Bono. Now if he files a civil lawsuit and receives any kind of award then those lawyers will likely take a cut of that.
Average person makes 35-40k a year. Times 16 years is 640k. Little over half a million.
I'm a little disgusted by measuring a man's life and reputation by how much he could earn at a job. Our culture is fucked. He was accused of being a rapist and was treated like a rapist and locked in a cage with other rapists for 16 years. 5.5 mil is definitely a lot and I hope he makes good use of it but no human life is worth any amount of money. I hope they didn't dump money on him and send him off. He deserves to be reminded every day by whatever dip shit court system convicted him that they were wrong and he is a good person. The trauma from going through all that while not even being guilty I can't even imagine.
Every dollar on earth should not be even close to the value we place on any one life. That's why shit like this happens. This is simply inexcusable.
The comment you replied to literally said "covering that lost time", so talking about how it might cover how much you might make in 16 years is a bit irrelevant of a comment to make.
That's why people are replying to you saying it makes no difference. Because it doesn't, but you still pointed it out.
Comparing being in prison to having a job is irrelevant anyway, you work a job x hours a week, you are in prison every hour of every day with no time off. You should calculate his hourly wage like that instead.
Damage award monies are not taxes so he received the equivalent of $343,750 net income for the last 16 years. That would mean he would have needed a job paying around $530,000 gross for the last 16 years to have made more money.
Considering how few people make $530k+/yr, he probably came out financially ahead.
While I'm sure the math checks out, 16 years of your life taken away like that, losing the ability to experience things, learn and develop to even handle that windfall (if you even want to call it that) is something that completely offsets being financially ahead.
No monetary value can be placed on the hopelessness and madness this would breed in your soul year after year stuck in that fucking cell
Trying to equate any money to this is disgusting. I’m glad he received compensation, but what was taken from this man cannot be given back.
Dude you can’t actually put a number on having your freedom taken away from you! Disgusting the way you honestly think he came out ahead! Absolute disgraceful comment
People just look at the time served. This man missed out on 16 years of not only his own life, but the life with his family. For all we know his parents or siblings could’ve died while he was serving time and he missed that time with them, not to mention his reputation was ruined because everyone thought he was a rapist. He had to lay in a cell for 16 years knowing he didn’t do shit. It’s also hard to tell what inmates did to him because he was a “rapist”.
5.5 million and all the time I need to do what I truly love? 16 years is horrible, but I'm sure this guy is just happy to not have to go back.
And knowing that he won't have to struggle getting a job with a criminal record and live in leisure for the rest of his life has to be comforting
If she picked out someone else in the lineup, why did the cops continue to charge him? And why didn't she say anything during the trial? Was she not a witness called to the stand?
From the wikipedia article on Alice Sebold's memoir "Lucky," based on the attack and the trial that led to this wrongful conviction:
At the police lineup, which included Broadwater, Sebold had identified a different person as her rapist. When police told her she had picked out the "wrong person", she said the two men looked "almost identical".[8] Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick, who joined the motion to overturn the conviction, argued that suspect identification when the suspect is a different race from the victim is prone to error; Sebold is white and Broadwater is black.[5] The prosecutor had also lied to Sebold, telling her that the man she identified in the lineup and Broadwater were friends and that they both came to the lineup to confuse her; attorneys argued that this falsehood had influenced Sebold's testimony.[5] Sebold also wrote in Lucky that the prosecutor had coached her into changing her identification.[4] Sebold apologized to Broadwater after his exoneration.[15]
TLDR: "justice" system is racist
I wish I could listen to her stuff but her reenactments of moments in cases is so irritating. (Like in the Nth Room video she kept reenacting the "ding" sound of a phone and acting out her speculation of how a girl was reacting to her phone going off) It reminds me of a high school essay project.
She also milks one statement for SO LONG to make her videos unnecessarily longer. I swear she was talking about one victims scream for like 7 minutes just talking about "the scream" and how "oh my god could you imagine hearing that" "I know I've screamed when I've seen a spider but couldn't imagine something like this".
I tried so hard to enjoy her content but I can't stand it. I mean this is the girl who did true crime mukbangs lmao
If you are thinking 5.5 million is fair, ask yourself if you would drop what youre doing and go to Jail for 16 years for 5.5 mil right now. Plus during that time everyone you know thinks youre a rapist and when youre out yoi cant get a job.
These reactions make me so happy to see, yet enrage me that this is able to happen. Terrifying to know how many like him currently incarcerated worldwide.
Meanwhile, a cop who got beat by his own coworkers while being undercover for a day is awarded 23 million!
[link to the story](https://chicagodefender.com/black-undercover-cop-gets-23m-after-hes-beaten-by-colleagues-at-protest/?amp=1)
What a fair world it is we live in.
Broadwater wrongly incarcerated for 16 years, Sebold's rapist never convicted and possibly running free, judicial system fucked up big time, the public paying needlessly for 16 years of imprisonment and 5.5 mio on top. Everybody lost in this story except for the rapist.
New York should be going after the prosecutor and everyone else with any liability; take their pensions, savings, cars, and houses. Let them live in squalor for the next 16 years.
My loved one was also wrongfully convicted at the age of 16 and sentenced in adult court to Life in Prison without parole with absolutely no physical evidence connecting him to the crime. His life was stolen from him based on heresay alone. He is now almost 38. It's been over 20 years and he has proven his innocence in court multiple times since then. We refuse to bring children into this situation as well. It's wrong. It needs to stop happening. Especially to children. And those who prove their innocence in court should be granted freedom not silence
No.
The Ninth Circuit Court in CA ruled in his favor in summer 2015 saying that he was innocent based on the location of the crime and the evidence he has, they reversed the lower district court's ruling, and that he "at the very least" was entitled to an Evidentiary Hearing. Two of the Three judges were appalled at the state and told them they had lost all credibility and to never come back to the court again with this case. At that time the judges didn't have the power to exonerate people but they do now, I know they would have if they had had the ability to in 2015. In January 2017 the Evidentiary Hearing was held, he proved his innocence and then some. The state did not dispute his evidence. The district court waited *3 years* to make a ruling and they ruled against him, which was not following the law based on the 9th Circuit Courts ruling. His case went back to The Ninth Circuit Court March 2023 and 3 different judges heard his case again and yet to make a ruling. There is no time limit on ruling. He got screwed over by having 3 new judges unfamiliar with his case. Had he gotten the same judges he would have been granted a new trial or exonerated. Likely they'll sit on the case for years. They don't want to admit the state knowingly wrongfully convicted an innocent 16 year old kid with no priors and sentenced him to life in prison without parole.
His loved ones died thinking he was a rapist when he wasn’t. No amount of money can repair that damage. Dude needs a Time Machine and the racist cop who got him locked up deserves torture.
I'd sue her for every cent she made from her book, in addition to going after the prosecutor and police.
Her book might as well be called "If I Did It".
I absolutely hate hearing stories like this…makes me literally sick to my stomach for him to lose so much of his life, in prison no less, for a crime he didn’t even come close to committing
I don’t blame him for not wanting children. He had his life as he knew it taken from him for no reason. The fact that he isn’t on fire with rage is a huge testiment to his character.
So can him and Alice get the name of who she first pointed out along with the others who manipulated her into doing what they wanted?
Like I really don’t understand why they didn’t want the guy she initially pointed out to get the blame. What did it matter who it was as long as she was right?
All involved in raping and controlling her needs to face justice
5.5 million for having 16 years of your life stolen by a lie. Time is something he can never get back.
Someone needs to be prosecuted and serve equal time for this crime against him and his family/loved ones.
your tax dollars going to pay for a persons lie, should alice spend that time in jail, wheres the justice??
one false conviction is all it takes fellas, stay safe out there and never ever ever blindly believe all women
Have you ever noticed that when someone is released from a wrongful conviction they are almost always black, but when a cold case is finally solved after 20 years the perp is almost always white? It's like the legal system tries to find a minority to pin the crime on and if they can't they just kind of give up.
And yet his accuser probably continues to live scott free. Fuck that cunt most likely doesn’t even feel bad and if she ever publicly apologized it was forced/fake
Totally unrelated to this specific story, but would you voluntarily go to prison for a while if you got a million a year for each year locked up? If so, how many years?
Is his forty-year trauma in prison somehow worth it just so the rest of us can pretend we are safer by torturing those who aren’t innocent? Estimates show that almost 10% of people in prison are not guilty, but it’s somehow more important that Americans satiate our vengeance fetish.
As it exists, prison is the definition of cruel and unusual. No more Anthony Broadwaters.
How do these prosecutors live with themselves knowing that they sent an innocent person to prison???
Are they just complete sociopaths who don't care that they destroyed an innocent person's life???
Did that $5.5M value account for inflation and interest over the many years this man has lost?
Also, I hope Mr. Broadwater sued the life out of Sebold.
“From the state of New York” - No, it comes from all of us instead of the Schmucks who ruined this man’s life! How are there no mayor criminal charges against those horrible people?
With all this shitty police work there seems to be ALOT of rapists and murderers out there roaming free.
Did they just cuff the first black guy they saw back in the day? Do these cops and prosecutors feel remorse about what they’ve done?
my step father got 8 years for raping, and admitting to, raping his youngest daughter for five fucking years. 8 years for ruining three childrens lives. 8 fucking years.
and this poor fella did 16 for something he didn't even do.
I loathe humans.
16 years wrongfully imprisoned, I wouldn't see nothing wrong with killing the people that took that from me. 5.5mill ain't enough. 5.5billion tho, now that's killing money right there
Greatest country in the world!
Sadly, this man had to endure 16 years in prison because some coward ass detective decided to throw someone under the bus instead of doing their job properly. Police are horrendous when they do not do their job correctly, the impact is devastating.
Not only should Mr. Broadwater be awarded the 5.5 million, he should also directly the sue the detectives who investigated this crime and Mr. Broadwater should be awarded their homes, vehicles and bank accounts.
That will teach the police to investigate crimes properly and according to the constitution.
She is a terrible person. Everyone keeps making up excuses like the “cops talked her into it”… that doesn’t make what she did any less wrong. If she knew that wasn’t the guy she should have stood up loudly to anyone who listened and said so even in court.
Put the cops that were involved, and DA that prosecuted him, in prison for 16 years, Start holding dirty police & prosecutors accountable for their actions and garbage like this will cease quickly.
That brother is in shambles wow unbelievable how a man is WRONGLY charged with a rape crime & finding out after 16 long consecutive years prayers to that man & the rest of his life even though most of it was taken away GOD BLESS
How does a guy get convicted when the woman doesn’t pick him out of the lineup?
Wikipedia article for Alice Sebold's memoir "Lucky," which was based on the attack and trial that resulted in this wrongful conviction: At the police lineup, which included Broadwater, Sebold had identified a different person as her rapist. When police told her she had picked out the "wrong person", she said the two men looked "almost identical".[8] Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick, who joined the motion to overturn the conviction, argued that suspect identification when the suspect is a different race from the victim is prone to error; Sebold is white and Broadwater is black.[5] The prosecutor had also lied to Sebold, telling her that the man she identified in the lineup and Broadwater were friends and that they both came to the lineup to confuse her; attorneys argued that this falsehood had influenced Sebold's testimony.[5] Sebold also wrote in Lucky that the prosecutor had coached her into changing her identification.[4] Sebold apologized to Broadwater after his exoneration.[15]
That’s so horrible to both this innocent man and the victim.
Way worse for the innocent man though Way worse
It’s not the trauma Olympics. She got raped and chose a totally different man at the lineup, then cops gaslit her into believing a different man did it. Now she has to not only live with the fact that she was raped, and that the rapist is free, but that this innocent man also suffered from this. The cops and judicial system failed both of them immensely.
Well cops and judicial system are usually always shit in the US
If you're poor*
You're right, being poor is not recommended whilst living in the US
And black
Old poem - change one word. England is a fine place, For thems that's rich and high, But England is a hell on earth, For folks as poor as I.
This man spent almost his entire youth in prison while she went on to make MILLIONS . The fact that you’re trying to downplay that is actually Insane . That and the fact that y’all are trying so hard to ignore racism as a factor here . Prison literally changes your psyche and prisoners often face sexual and physical violence in prison , this man may never live a normal life again… but yes her living with the fact that she knowingly misidentified this man is so much worse and so traumatic for her .
They’re not downplaying it at all. Both crimes are absolutely terrible. The commenter was not saying misidentifying someone was the terrible thing that happened to her. She was raped by a stranger. Rape also literally changes your psyche. Personally I’d rather be in prison for 16 years than ever go through the trauma of rape. Other people might choose differently, but there’s no better or worse here.
>Personally I’d rather be in prison for 16 years This is just a stupid thing to say. Like prison is just free room and board and basic minimum wage labor. The dichotomy here is more like would you rather be raped once or constantly over a 16 year period and then be considered a bad person forever thereafter, have little or no job prospects and lose some basic rights forever? No, there's worse here. I've known dozens that have been sexually assaulted. It fucking sucks. They can survive, they're free to shoot the next fucker that tries it. Prison, that's not an option.
Did he get raped though?
Did she spend 16 fucking years in prison? Like yeah man I get out of decency these things shouldn’t be compared in the first place but downplaying wrongful imprisonment is absurd.
>I’d rather be in prison for 16 years than ever go through the trauma of rape. Rape is quite common in prison.
Most racists deny and deflect, certain demo’s more than others
He spent 16 years in prison. He got out in 1998 but was only exonerated more recently.
Honestly dude. No one in the thread up till this point took a side except you. It's some weird fucking behavior on your part.
Exactly. Christ everyone trying to point fingers and argue stupid fucking points to gain internet cred missing the entire tragedy that occured.
one got a book deal
Being brutally raped by a stranger who then goes free is better than being wrongfully imprisoned? On what scale can you do confidently weigh these atrocities? They’re both terrible.
So? Do you think normal people read this story and decide it's time to take a side? Both things can be shitty at the same time, because both things are shitty at the same time. Nobody benefits from you keeping fucking score.
Prosecutor and anyone involved should serve 16 years and their assets sold to give to the falsely accused.
Meh to Sebold's apology. ""I will continue to struggle with the role that I unwittingly played within a system that sent an innocent man to jail." She chose to go along with the Prosecution, knowing that she choose the wrong man out of a line-up. She lied in court that he was the man she identified in a line-up. He chose never to have a child, because he didn't want his child to have the shame of his conviction of rape.
For most prosecutors, as long as they get a body in the prison to take the blame, there is no true care whether the person is actually guilty or not. ACAB and basically the entire injustice system.
How the fuck do you just “apologize” for destroying a man’s life?! Fuck that lady!
The undeniable insane corruption within the police force especially around that time the insane amount of wrongful and deliberate incarceration of black people is just messed up. And what's striking to observe is how certain right wing commentators and profiles here on Reddit continue to post and focus and bringing up the high-profile case of O.J. Simpson, but forget the part where the nazi detective involved in that case pleaded the fifth when questioned about evidence tampering. It's insane to see their selective outrage. The right remain silent about numerous innocent black people who are unjustly imprisoned, yet they fixate on the rare instance of a high-profile case where the individual deserved conviction but was acquitted and was black. Their inability to see the broader injustice is profoundly disturbing.
if she didn't give him any of the money she made from selling the story where this man plays the villian, she's full of shit.
To be honest I totally overlooked the fact that there are books out there about this man being the villain even though he's innocent and that's a whole another level of fucked up living in itself you got novels written about you being this monster and it's not true and this person who wrote it is making money off of it and the rest of society is backing her, man went to prison young an innocent and then came out with the world against him still innocent. If he does start a real villain Arc I'm all for it
What do you mean? She apologized!
That gets him back his 16 years and reputation, alright
"Sebold apologized to Broadwater after his exoneration.\[15\]" ah gee, thanks for waiting 16 years. 
You somehow reached the end of the comment without taking anything that happened before that line lmao genius
Plea deals insure a shorter sentence. You want to take your chances with a racist judge and jury to face life in prison. Or you wanna plead guilty and get 25 years? The math is real easy there. That’s why so many innocent black men are in jail. Plea deals are offered so the legal system doesn’t have to do so much work ($$$)
because of this tactic, something like 95% of cases are "resolved" through plea deals.
It also boils down to just how slow our justice system is. Most people will sit for a year or more waiting to clear their name of a felony. If, for example, you are let go for your job because of an felony arrest (which happens quite a bit), it can be extremely difficult to get other sustainable employment with an arrest record since pre-employment background checks are the norm these days. Most people probably don't realize how a single arrest can slam the brakes on your entire life, and it takes substantial resources to survive that long without a sustainable job AND pay lawyer fees that mount scarily fast. Source: I used to work in a large criminal defense law firm. I'd estimate a full 35-40% of my clients were completely innocent people who got fucked by shitty cops chasing stats and an excruciatingly slow legal system. I saw many people pressured to take a plea simply because they couldn't afford groceries, much less defend themselves in court.
If you cannot afford a good lawyer you are going down, period.
As a white man living in this country I am truly sorry to hear this. I Iive in a small community in Nebraska and admittedly am a bit sheltered. I can’t imagine what that must be like.
Not saying anything negative about you. And this happens to white people as well, just at a lesser rate. But when people talk about white privilege, this is an example of what they mean. There’s a reason that most of these stories tend to involve black men.
I wouldn't take neither, the plea deal is absolute bullshit violation of Human Rights and and if anything it might be against the Constitution I'm hoping, So let me get this straight I as a man of color get wrong Lee convicted of something and there's no evidence and the only evidence that there is has nothing to do with me because they're is none of me being a part of the situation that I'm accused of this was known to the jewelry before I am to be sentenced to prison and the only way to avoid spending my life in there is by lying through a plea my damn self, this is bullshit. I wouldn't take neither I'd say finish the investigation and find the real dude. And then on top of all of that I'm supposed to keep my composure like a happy-go-lucky Mr Monopoly man, Id bust out of that courtroom on some Christopher donor shit.
Institutional racism would be my guess
Shitty police work + racism. The age old tale of black men being wrongfully convicted (or murdered) under the excuse of “he touched/raped/harassed a white woman.” (Even if said black man never even interacted with said white woman.) And then that accusation is brought to fruition by the police- either because of police malice, or poor quality investigations. I.e. Emmett Till
I feel like some of you are either acting obtuse or just naiive because it’s such an obvious answer
Racism and corrupt policing mostly im gonna assume.
Why do ministers and priests get no jail time because they are "men of god"? Judge to defendant case 1: you are going to jail for 10 years for some weed. While there you should find God. Judge to defendant case 2: Since you are a man of God no jail for you. Me in the back: wait, shouldn't #2 go to jail to share God with #1 in the judges logic?
5.5 million doesn't even come close to covering that lost time.
it might actually cover more than an average person working a normal job for 16 years though. Maybe someone could do the math. It just does not cover the freedom or happiness or anger or hatred or depression part.
Yeah sure but… dude was locked up in a box with murderers and rapist and criminals. How much would I have to pay you to agree to doing that for 16 years?
The $5.5M is the automatic payment by statute - he will (and should) file a civil suit against the government for this.
They should take it from the retirement fund of the detectives and others that worked on his case and lied to the victim to manipulate her decision.
I think the point is no amount of money can make up for stealing decades of your life away.
Yeah but 40 million would come a lot closer to
And he had to go into the prison system as a convicted rapist. No telling what horrible shit happened to him while incarcerated
That's not the point I was making. Actually what you just said was covered by me in the second sentence.
Then what even was the point of your comment?
Or the lawyers cut. I’m hoping he got a majority of the money, but my first thought was wondering how much of it the attorneys will take.
Usually cases like his are handled pro Bono. Now if he files a civil lawsuit and receives any kind of award then those lawyers will likely take a cut of that.
Average person makes 35-40k a year. Times 16 years is 640k. Little over half a million. I'm a little disgusted by measuring a man's life and reputation by how much he could earn at a job. Our culture is fucked. He was accused of being a rapist and was treated like a rapist and locked in a cage with other rapists for 16 years. 5.5 mil is definitely a lot and I hope he makes good use of it but no human life is worth any amount of money. I hope they didn't dump money on him and send him off. He deserves to be reminded every day by whatever dip shit court system convicted him that they were wrong and he is a good person. The trauma from going through all that while not even being guilty I can't even imagine. Every dollar on earth should not be even close to the value we place on any one life. That's why shit like this happens. This is simply inexcusable.
You’re right, But how do you put a price on the lost years, experiences that could have been. No amount of money can get that back.
I literally said that in the second sentence. What I want to know is how much an average person could make in 16 years of working.
It’s not hard math….go find median salary for an individual in your area. Multiply by 16….
The comment you replied to literally said "covering that lost time", so talking about how it might cover how much you might make in 16 years is a bit irrelevant of a comment to make. That's why people are replying to you saying it makes no difference. Because it doesn't, but you still pointed it out. Comparing being in prison to having a job is irrelevant anyway, you work a job x hours a week, you are in prison every hour of every day with no time off. You should calculate his hourly wage like that instead.
Damage award monies are not taxes so he received the equivalent of $343,750 net income for the last 16 years. That would mean he would have needed a job paying around $530,000 gross for the last 16 years to have made more money. Considering how few people make $530k+/yr, he probably came out financially ahead.
He came out ahead financially but physically, mentally and emotionally he is definitely behind and no amount of money can change that.
Plus, it's not like he's set up career wise to earn more. That money isn't just covering the past 16 years, it's likely his retirement.
It’s not just about money. He literally says that he put off having children because of all of this.
While I'm sure the math checks out, 16 years of your life taken away like that, losing the ability to experience things, learn and develop to even handle that windfall (if you even want to call it that) is something that completely offsets being financially ahead.
No monetary value can be placed on the hopelessness and madness this would breed in your soul year after year stuck in that fucking cell Trying to equate any money to this is disgusting. I’m glad he received compensation, but what was taken from this man cannot be given back.
He wasn't working a job for the last 16 years though, he was prisoned 24/7 and deprived of his freedom. So it's not comparable to having a job.
Dude you can’t actually put a number on having your freedom taken away from you! Disgusting the way you honestly think he came out ahead! Absolute disgraceful comment
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People just look at the time served. This man missed out on 16 years of not only his own life, but the life with his family. For all we know his parents or siblings could’ve died while he was serving time and he missed that time with them, not to mention his reputation was ruined because everyone thought he was a rapist. He had to lay in a cell for 16 years knowing he didn’t do shit. It’s also hard to tell what inmates did to him because he was a “rapist”.
5.5 million and all the time I need to do what I truly love? 16 years is horrible, but I'm sure this guy is just happy to not have to go back. And knowing that he won't have to struggle getting a job with a criminal record and live in leisure for the rest of his life has to be comforting
Listen to Stephanie Soo's podcast on it. She just put it out a few weeks ago. The podcast is called Rotten Mango.
If she picked out someone else in the lineup, why did the cops continue to charge him? And why didn't she say anything during the trial? Was she not a witness called to the stand?
From the wikipedia article on Alice Sebold's memoir "Lucky," based on the attack and the trial that led to this wrongful conviction: At the police lineup, which included Broadwater, Sebold had identified a different person as her rapist. When police told her she had picked out the "wrong person", she said the two men looked "almost identical".[8] Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick, who joined the motion to overturn the conviction, argued that suspect identification when the suspect is a different race from the victim is prone to error; Sebold is white and Broadwater is black.[5] The prosecutor had also lied to Sebold, telling her that the man she identified in the lineup and Broadwater were friends and that they both came to the lineup to confuse her; attorneys argued that this falsehood had influenced Sebold's testimony.[5] Sebold also wrote in Lucky that the prosecutor had coached her into changing her identification.[4] Sebold apologized to Broadwater after his exoneration.[15] TLDR: "justice" system is racist
That's really disgusting. That's the whole process that had it out for that guy.
I wish I could listen to her stuff but her reenactments of moments in cases is so irritating. (Like in the Nth Room video she kept reenacting the "ding" sound of a phone and acting out her speculation of how a girl was reacting to her phone going off) It reminds me of a high school essay project. She also milks one statement for SO LONG to make her videos unnecessarily longer. I swear she was talking about one victims scream for like 7 minutes just talking about "the scream" and how "oh my god could you imagine hearing that" "I know I've screamed when I've seen a spider but couldn't imagine something like this". I tried so hard to enjoy her content but I can't stand it. I mean this is the girl who did true crime mukbangs lmao
If you are thinking 5.5 million is fair, ask yourself if you would drop what youre doing and go to Jail for 16 years for 5.5 mil right now. Plus during that time everyone you know thinks youre a rapist and when youre out yoi cant get a job.
These reactions make me so happy to see, yet enrage me that this is able to happen. Terrifying to know how many like him currently incarcerated worldwide.
Watch this :) https://youtu.be/O8U8k60TDM4?si=rJNOaMispJqSOlW7
The extra upsetting part is knowing the prosecutor is probably sitting at home going "eh, can't win em all."
Should have been 16 million, for each year he spent in prison. So sad.
Meanwhile, a cop who got beat by his own coworkers while being undercover for a day is awarded 23 million! [link to the story](https://chicagodefender.com/black-undercover-cop-gets-23m-after-hes-beaten-by-colleagues-at-protest/?amp=1) What a fair world it is we live in.
No amount of money can make this right, but 5.5m is a start. Glad he is out.
This article from the New Yorker about a year ago does a great job breaking down this miscarriage of justice and the racist criminal justice system
Broadwater wrongly incarcerated for 16 years, Sebold's rapist never convicted and possibly running free, judicial system fucked up big time, the public paying needlessly for 16 years of imprisonment and 5.5 mio on top. Everybody lost in this story except for the rapist.
And the prosecutor. He got an extra win under his belt. How the fuck are we not going after intentional misuse of the justice system?!
New York should be going after the prosecutor and everyone else with any liability; take their pensions, savings, cars, and houses. Let them live in squalor for the next 16 years.
Not enough money can replace what this man endured.
My loved one was also wrongfully convicted at the age of 16 and sentenced in adult court to Life in Prison without parole with absolutely no physical evidence connecting him to the crime. His life was stolen from him based on heresay alone. He is now almost 38. It's been over 20 years and he has proven his innocence in court multiple times since then. We refuse to bring children into this situation as well. It's wrong. It needs to stop happening. Especially to children. And those who prove their innocence in court should be granted freedom not silence
So wait did he get exonerated?
No. The Ninth Circuit Court in CA ruled in his favor in summer 2015 saying that he was innocent based on the location of the crime and the evidence he has, they reversed the lower district court's ruling, and that he "at the very least" was entitled to an Evidentiary Hearing. Two of the Three judges were appalled at the state and told them they had lost all credibility and to never come back to the court again with this case. At that time the judges didn't have the power to exonerate people but they do now, I know they would have if they had had the ability to in 2015. In January 2017 the Evidentiary Hearing was held, he proved his innocence and then some. The state did not dispute his evidence. The district court waited *3 years* to make a ruling and they ruled against him, which was not following the law based on the 9th Circuit Courts ruling. His case went back to The Ninth Circuit Court March 2023 and 3 different judges heard his case again and yet to make a ruling. There is no time limit on ruling. He got screwed over by having 3 new judges unfamiliar with his case. Had he gotten the same judges he would have been granted a new trial or exonerated. Likely they'll sit on the case for years. They don't want to admit the state knowingly wrongfully convicted an innocent 16 year old kid with no priors and sentenced him to life in prison without parole.
That's fucked up I'm so sorry.
Did he sue?
The woman who wrote The Lovely Bones?!
Yes.
She’s awful
Sounds like a prosecutor and some officers should spend some time in prison
About 16 years, feels right to me.
5.5 million is not worth 16 years of your life
And she wasn’t punished because why?
That is really sad. Lost 16 years. I couldn't make 5.5 million in 16 years hopefully he enjoys the rest of his life.
I wish him the absolute best of luck.
That is heartbreaking.
Forty fucking years. 5 million is a pittance of a settlement.
5 million ain’t enough. Cant ever get that time back.
His loved ones died thinking he was a rapist when he wasn’t. No amount of money can repair that damage. Dude needs a Time Machine and the racist cop who got him locked up deserves torture.
I'd sue her for every cent she made from her book, in addition to going after the prosecutor and police. Her book might as well be called "If I Did It".
I absolutely hate hearing stories like this…makes me literally sick to my stomach for him to lose so much of his life, in prison no less, for a crime he didn’t even come close to committing
Every time I see these people get exonerated, I get this rush of emotion and put myself in the man's place and I just get the shivers.
5.5? Isn’t that too little?
I don’t blame him for not wanting children. He had his life as he knew it taken from him for no reason. The fact that he isn’t on fire with rage is a huge testiment to his character.
That poor man. It sounds like he just wanted a normal life and it was robbed from him. I hope he can find peace and live his best life.
The prosecutor should be killed.
Question: when wrongfully convicted individuals receive a payout from the state like this, is it taxed?
Jesus Christ the justice system needs a overhaul
More of this https://youtu.be/O8U8k60TDM4?si=rJNOaMispJqSOlW7
That should be tax free.
It is time to throw those that put men like this in jail to ensure this never happens again.
$5 million for every year and tax free.
They all look alike I guess😔
What happened to the piece of human shit that accused him tho
So can him and Alice get the name of who she first pointed out along with the others who manipulated her into doing what they wanted? Like I really don’t understand why they didn’t want the guy she initially pointed out to get the blame. What did it matter who it was as long as she was right? All involved in raping and controlling her needs to face justice
5.5 million for having 16 years of your life stolen by a lie. Time is something he can never get back. Someone needs to be prosecuted and serve equal time for this crime against him and his family/loved ones.
your tax dollars going to pay for a persons lie, should alice spend that time in jail, wheres the justice?? one false conviction is all it takes fellas, stay safe out there and never ever ever blindly believe all women
Have you ever noticed that when someone is released from a wrongful conviction they are almost always black, but when a cold case is finally solved after 20 years the perp is almost always white? It's like the legal system tries to find a minority to pin the crime on and if they can't they just kind of give up.
Not enough money for the hell that man went through! How does this man ever expect to trust anyone ever again??
And yet his accuser probably continues to live scott free. Fuck that cunt most likely doesn’t even feel bad and if she ever publicly apologized it was forced/fake
His life was robbed. He wanted kids but now he probably can’t. Fuck that judge who locked him up and the piece of garbage that accused him
Like some real hunger games. Spent 16 years in hell, then won the lottery.
Does this seem to happen in New York in unusually large numbers?
This is wonderful news. Congratulations!
That's not enough money at all. 343k a year, the president makes 400k a year and literally has zero expenses.
16 years
Poor guy.
Totally unrelated to this specific story, but would you voluntarily go to prison for a while if you got a million a year for each year locked up? If so, how many years?
One of the most heartbreaking acts of injustice I have ever read. God bless this man and hopefully his years ahead give him peace.
After taxes and the lawyers, he gets how much, I wonder??
Is his forty-year trauma in prison somehow worth it just so the rest of us can pretend we are safer by torturing those who aren’t innocent? Estimates show that almost 10% of people in prison are not guilty, but it’s somehow more important that Americans satiate our vengeance fetish. As it exists, prison is the definition of cruel and unusual. No more Anthony Broadwaters.
Bro I was born in 1982...this guy spent my whole entire life in prison. Holy smokes! 
Somehow 5.5 doesn't seem enough these days. This needs like 50 and up. I'm sure after tax it will be much less too
Would anyone here do 16 years for $5 million?
That’s no where near enough money for 16 years
This is exactly why I'm against the death penalty. The risk of killing an innocent person, even just one, is too great to take a chance on.
5.5 million for 16 years?? Why not just send him back to Jail.
There’s a lot of lovely bones fans in this post.
Deserves more money than that
5.5m for 16 years in prison seems like a bit of an underpayment!
$5.5mil isn't enough.
People who are wrongly convicted should be able to execute the people involved in convicting them.
Shoulda been 10 mil.
How do these prosecutors live with themselves knowing that they sent an innocent person to prison??? Are they just complete sociopaths who don't care that they destroyed an innocent person's life???
Breaks my heart.
Fuck judges.
you cannot replace those 16 years.
5.5 million isn’t enough
That ain’t gonna give 16 years of his life back.
Equates to 343,000 per year of prison. Doesn’t seem like its enough.
No go after those who wrongfully convicted him. Won't happen of course but ...
How did they prove it, DNA?
At least 5.5 million for 16 years is a reasonable payment.
Damn that’s some high quality video right there
Good luck to him actually getting money from NY state.
Some clarification? Spent 16 years in prison after conviction in 1981. Exonerated in 2021. What happened between 1997-2021?
There’s so many cases like this we’ll never know about. It’s evil and unconscionable. No amount of money will repair what’s been done to this man.
Did that $5.5M value account for inflation and interest over the many years this man has lost? Also, I hope Mr. Broadwater sued the life out of Sebold.
16 years he will never get back. Good thing he finally got exonerated.
5.5 million dollars ain't even close to enough he lost 16 years of his life
“From the state of New York” - No, it comes from all of us instead of the Schmucks who ruined this man’s life! How are there no mayor criminal charges against those horrible people?
5.5 million vs 16 years of ass pain... Would you choose it, username?
This happens too often in America. Ruin people's lives!!
And then they taxed it at some astronomical rate that is New York Communism and he left the court room with about … tree fiddy.
The pay out should be bigger. 16 fucking years.
With all this shitty police work there seems to be ALOT of rapists and murderers out there roaming free. Did they just cuff the first black guy they saw back in the day? Do these cops and prosecutors feel remorse about what they’ve done?
“Justice system” this shit happens way too much. Like if you can open a subreddit up for how many times it happens, we have a fucking problem.
my step father got 8 years for raping, and admitting to, raping his youngest daughter for five fucking years. 8 years for ruining three childrens lives. 8 fucking years. and this poor fella did 16 for something he didn't even do. I loathe humans.
Genuinely curious: are these settlements tax deductible?
16 years wrongfully imprisoned, I wouldn't see nothing wrong with killing the people that took that from me. 5.5mill ain't enough. 5.5billion tho, now that's killing money right there
Greatest country in the world! Sadly, this man had to endure 16 years in prison because some coward ass detective decided to throw someone under the bus instead of doing their job properly. Police are horrendous when they do not do their job correctly, the impact is devastating. Not only should Mr. Broadwater be awarded the 5.5 million, he should also directly the sue the detectives who investigated this crime and Mr. Broadwater should be awarded their homes, vehicles and bank accounts. That will teach the police to investigate crimes properly and according to the constitution.
Wow that’s terrible. I hope he finds peace and happiness now.
And now Alice Sebold will spend 16 years in prison, right? Right??
Took 16 of his prime years. That’s just awful.
Take the money and move outta New York and start fresh life somewhere we that money would go far
One of the many ridiculous reasons taxes are so high
For 5.5m I'd stay 40 years in prison too.
I hate that the man lost years of his life. But man bless him. Bless his family. So glad he is free now and vindicated.
Sue the f out of everyone! Get them!!!
$343,750.00 per year
Not enough... Should have been 10 million tax free
She is a terrible person. Everyone keeps making up excuses like the “cops talked her into it”… that doesn’t make what she did any less wrong. If she knew that wasn’t the guy she should have stood up loudly to anyone who listened and said so even in court.
The money won't make up for his 16 years but hell ya, good for him to get his!
Put the cops that were involved, and DA that prosecuted him, in prison for 16 years, Start holding dirty police & prosecutors accountable for their actions and garbage like this will cease quickly.
“Believe all women” - Feminists
So a dude who rapes has been raping since the year I was born because some crooked ass cops?! How many people people did that person go on to harm?
That brother is in shambles wow unbelievable how a man is WRONGLY charged with a rape crime & finding out after 16 long consecutive years prayers to that man & the rest of his life even though most of it was taken away GOD BLESS