Georgia House votes to pay 3 US Army soldiers for overturned murder convictions after 25 years in prison
A travesty of justice corrected after 25 years. Or is it?
By: JOSHUA SHARPE
Georgia House members voted Thursday night to compensate three former U.S. Army soldiers for the 25 years they lost in prison before their murder convictions were overturned.
The legislation, which passed with wide bipartisan support, now moves to the state Senate for consideration. The trio of bills would pay Mark Jones, Kenny Gardiner and Dominic Lucci $1 million each. The money would be paid out over 20 years, as is typical in such cases. An economist hired by Karsman McKenzie Hart, the Savannah law firm representing the veterans, found that they would have made $3 million if they had stayed in the military, as they’d planned to do before they were charged with murder in 1992.
The soldiers, who were the subjects of a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution article and have always maintained their innocence, are tremendously relieved to be free, but the damage to their lives is done.
“I’ve always been that guy who wanted the American Dream — the family, the home, the two and a half kids. That’s what I’ve always wanted to be, what I’ve always dreamed of,” said Jones, who was 20 when he was arrested and is now nearing 50. “And the odds of that happening now are pretty slim.”
The Fort Stewart soldiers were arrested in Savannah on Jan. 31, 1992, in the murder of Stanley Jackson, a 35-year-old Marine veteran who was gunned down in a drive-by shooting while walking along the street. The defendants were in town for a bachelor party for Jones, who was supposed to marry the next morning but had to call off the wedding.
On the way to a strip club, the soldiers got lost and asked a police officer for directions. The officer happened to be walking the shooting’s only eyewitness, the Rev. James White, into a police station for an interview. White told the officer that the soldiers’ vehicle, a black sports car, resembled the one driven by the shooters. White later identified the defendants as the men he’d seen kill Jackson, though he has since said he was lying because of intense pressure from officials and community leaders to help solve the case.
Georgia robbed them of their youth, shorts them 2/3 of what they would have earned, and the good Rev. White will face no repercussions for his lies. Yeah, that sounds fair.
Read the rest here: American Military News
That’s just bullshit! That “reverend” should be locked up for 20 years. He can contemplate his sins, before he has to account for them.
That so-called “Reverend” needs to endure the prison hardships those innocent Men had to and for as many years!
Lying is a major sin. Rev. White was no Christian.
Restitution for the wrong he did … don’t think it is possible.
’bout damn time. I was working this are back when all of this came down. The good “reverend” lied his azz off and the political lackies that were running Savannah/Chatham County made sure that these troops were railroaded. Even then, a number of the popo knew that a travesty of justice was happening, but nobody would believe that it was just another example of black on black crime involving drugs. The horror! That never happens! dem debil white boyz don kilt a man dat wuz mindin’ hiz own dam bidniz. Some deep google foo on the Savannah newspapers and TV Station archives would dig up more on this.
God may listen to the good “reverend’s” pleas for forgiveness and may even grant it. I agree with y’all, he should have to spend the rest of his life locked up and get a small taste of what these troops went thru. And the County of Chatham, NOT the State, should have to pay these gentlemen the 3 mil each that they should have coming to them. The bottom line is they were falsely accused because they were white, and what black preacher has ever told a lie?
I hope they get the money. By my calculations, with a modest 4% assumed interest, they will each receive $17,687 a month for the next 20 years. Structured right, it should be tax free.
Dollars can’t replace years, but they can make the next years more enjoyable.
I thought it said $1,000,000 over 20 years – $50K a year. I am reading that wrong?
If not, 50K Hardly seems fair – especially after Uncle Sam, who screwed them in the first place, gets his cut.
Legal settlements for damages are generally not taxable income. The whole point of damages is to restore people to where they’d have been had the damages not occurred, so it should not be considered “taxable income.”
I guess it depends on how the payment is characterized but, for example, settlements or judgments from lawsuits are almost never considered taxable income.
James White (I refuse to honor him with the title “Reverend”) will, indeed, have to stand before the Righteous Judge Who cannot be deceived and answer for his lies.
But then, so will I.
Doesn’t stop me from being thankful that I am not James White, though.
I wouldn’t have believed something like that could happen in America.
That’s like banana republic style justice.
Why isn’t James White in prison?
Didn’t he lie to the state under oath?
Isn’t that a felony?
Yes, it is a felony in some jurisdictions, but the statute of limitations likely ran out about 20 years ago.
The ‘reverend’ needs to take a nice long hot frothy shower w/ Bubba, Lars, Pablo, and Tiny.
so innocent got railroaded…which begs the question…
who shot the guy? and why didn’t anyone want to catch the actual killers?
I suspect there is much more to this story, and knowing some of the corrupt history of that area, I suspect that the list of those on the take is long and distinguished.
That was going to be my comment.
If these three guys were innocent, that means the killer or killers got clean away with it!
At least one individual– who was a member of a local black gang at the time of the murder– knows the murderer’s identity, but still refuses to tell. The gang leader, who also knew, has since died in prison.
Clicking the links takes you to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which covers the case in detail including “who knew”.
The whole story.
https://centurion.org/cases/gardiner-kenneth/
It’s not enough.
And everybody involved from “Reverend” White all the way up the chain needs to be locked up for the next 25 years
Didn’t this also happen to a few navy folks in Virginia too
During this timeframe
Surprise, surprise, Sgt. Carter! Who woulda thunk it in rayciss Amerikkka; three white soldiers were victims of Black racism against whites and spent 25 years in prison for a crime they had virtually nothing to do with. But they were convicted by the perjured testimony of a Black reverend. Wonder if this rev got his religious ordination the same way as the Rev. Jackson, Sharpton, and some of those other Black racial grievance mongers masquerading as men of the cloth. Even some of the jurors admitted they needed to convict these white soldiers of killing the Black Marine so the community wouldn’t have Rodney King style riots.
If they had money they would never have served a day in jail.
Our system of justice leaves justice out of the equation far too often.
This particular case proves another sad reality, that the police in many parts of this great nation are simply another gang of criminals with the veneer of respectability attached to their criminal acts. I have friends and family who are LEOs, and what they tell me about their profession brings me little relief in terms of how I view the enforcement arm of our Government. The government fucked these guys as hard as you can fuck someone without murdering them also. The government acknowledges that fact, the government recognizes the loss of time and the loss of earning power and in their sense of regret they offer a 30% compensation package for the value of what was taken away.
Remind me again why, under any circumstance, I should ever trust anyone from Government who claims to be on my side?
Because in my view, frankly, Government lies and steals and uses the power of violence to maintain those lies and stolen property at our expense. Government, like its capitalist owners, needs to be shackled tightly to prevent it from corrupting itself and those associated with it into something ugly instead of something beneficial.
government is never an arm of capitalism unless it becomes the capitalist.
which is, of course, another way of saying that government power is directly proportional to the economic freedom (capitalism) it allows.
Big capitalism = small government.
big government = small capitalism.
“Big capitalism = small government.
big government = small capitalism.”
Ret_25X, that’s an excellent point.
Government is in fact the flexing arm of the capitalist class that buys the Rs and the Ds to write the laws of the Government.
The founders knew this, the average life span being what it was then I suspect they didn’t factor in the idea that people would serve 40 years in the house and make it a very lucrative career.
If you don’t think the capitalist class owns our government you haven’t really been paying attention.
There is a reason billionaires gets to avoid property taxes on developments and you can lose your house over your property tax bill.
VoV,
The individuals wearing the badge of the government, both police officers and the prosecutors, are the one that failed in this case.
Don’t blame the system.
Blame the corrupt pigs willing to do anything to get a conviction, even at the cost of the lives of innocent Americans doing their duty in the military.
“If they had money they would never have served a day in jail.”
VoV,
In a socialist country, you would be saying:
“If they had right connections they would never have served a day in jail.”
Let me fine tune that:
““If they had the right political connections they would never have served a day in jail.”
“Capitalism is the exploitation by other men. Socialism is the exact opposite.”
Thanks be, that we have the best justice system money can buy.
I’ve often said that the only difference between some government officials and guys like John Gotti is that Gotti could afford a better tailor. And don’t get me started about the less than moral behavior of certain “reverands” who have no idea what a moral compass is let alone have one. Lock ’em all up for as long as those guys were, no pardons, no parole, no good time.
When it comes to “Reverends” the likes of Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker come to mind…
Add in the “Reverends” Jackson and Sharpton. Jim Jones. Still a few good ones around. The Reverends Horton Heat and Al Green, for example.
I’m about sick of our fucked up Justice system. That’s like the idiots raiding a massage parlor in Florida, they try to create criminals instead of catching them and the street’s are full!
It sounds like the ‘good reverend’ White had an acute case of self hating whiteness. I hope he goes to prison for what he did.
Just to be clear, “Reverend” White is actually black.