Man Gets $428,000 for False Conviction
A man who served 12 years in prison for a murder his prosecutors now agree he didn’t commit will get $428,000 in restitution -- or $100 a day for time served -- under a bill signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Gray Davis.
Without the legislation by Assemblyman Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), Quedellis Ricardo Walker of East Palo Alto would have had to wait at least four months for the money. He has said he will use the money to buy an auto mechanic shop.
Walker was convicted in 1991 in the murder of an ex-girlfriend in Cupertino. A judge freed him from prison in June after the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office acknowledged it had convicted the wrong man.
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