Ireland was issued the payment under Connecticut’s wrongful incarceration compensation law. This is the first award for a wrongful incarceration since the law was adopted in 2008.
— Paul Hughes (@RA_PaulHughes) January 29, 2015
According to the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic that works to exonerate wrongfully convicted people in the U.S., Ireland was charged and found guilty of felony murder, first-degree sexual assault and third-degree burglary, after allegedly raping and murdering 30-year-old mother of three Barbara Pelkey.
In 2009, the Project, after reviewing his case for two years, performed a DNA test and found that evidence found on the victim couldn’t be linked to Ireland, at which time the state of Connecticut immediately released him.
The same tests led to the 2012 conviction of Kevin Benefield for the crime. He is currently serving a 60 year sentence for Pelkey’s murder.
Ireland’s award breaks down to $2.5 million for loss of liberty and enjoyment of life, $1.5 million for loss of earning capacity, $300,000 for loss of reputation, $1.5 million for physical and mental injuries, and $200,00 for costs and expenses.
Ireland believes his award, “ensures my security and affords me some room to explore the world and see things I've missed," he said in a statement issued through his attorney, William Bloss.
"It still hasn't completely registered yet," he continued. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all.”
“Mr. Ireland was wrongfully convicted and was labeled a murderer and sex offender and was forced to spend a long portion of his life in maximum security prisons,” said claims commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr.
“He experienced 21 years of violence, sleepless nights and the constant fear and hopelessness that he would die in prison as an innocent man.”
Ireland filed a claim under the Connecticut wrongful incarceration compensation law for more than 5 million dollars in April 2014. In October, Governor Daniel P. Malloy appointed Ireland to the state Board of Paroles and Pardons.
Ireland told the Daily Mail that life in prison would rotate between “months and months' of boredom with '30 seconds of the most violent terror you could imagine.'” He said he eventually resigned himself to the belief that he would die in prison of old age or “more likely, a violent altercation.”
— Jess (@JCiparelli) January 30, 2015
The Innocence Project estimates that somewhere between 2.3 and 5% of U.S. prisoners (or between 46,000 and 100,000 people) are serving sentences for crimes they didn’t commit.
