How can Alan Northrop ever make up the 17 years he had to spend in prison for a crime that he didn’t commit? (An April 3 story reported “A life interrupted: Freed after 17 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Ridgefield man works at starting over.”) Why wasn’t DNA used as soon as it became available? Who dropped the ball and let this man sit in prison?
Now the state says “Oh, no” to compensation with the legislative failure of a bill that would compensate wrongfully convicted defendants. That is wrong. Northrop should get a minimum of $20,000 for each year spent erroneously in prison, and also the state should pay whatever child support he was to have paid. I think that is only fair.
Help Northrop rebuild his life and find his path to travel on in life.
Lavona Dokken
Vancouver
