Note:
(a) summary underneath of the title in print: Texas leads the US in executions--and cash for exonerated prisoners
(b) Excerpt in print: To get compensation "in most states, yo need a lawyer"
(c) Quote:
"Twenty-seven states and Washington, DC, provide some form of compensation to the wrongfully convicted. Vermont gives them a one-time payment of between $30,000 and $60,000 for each year they were locked up. Wisconsin pays $25,000 total, regardless of how long a person was incarcerated. So far Texas has paid 88 former prisoners, including two released from death row, a total of nearly $60 million, according to RJ DeSilva, spokesman for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
"The [Texas] law provides exonerees with a lump sum based on how many years they spent behind bars, plus the $80,000 annuity. The state also agreed to pay for 120 hours of college credit and $10,000 for job training.
"Salvati, Limone, and the representatives of the estates of Tameleo and Greco, along with various family members (collectively, the plaintiffs), brought suit against the United States advancing claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 USC §§ 1346(b), 2671-2680. Following a bench trial, the district court found the government liable on a multitude of theories and awarded over $100,000,000 in damages. The government appeals, as does one of the plaintiffs.
"Applying a literal reading of the statement in Limone IV that 'wrongfully imprisoned plaintiffs were entitled to compensation of at least $1 million per year of imprisonment,' 497 F. Supp. 2d at 243 (emphasis supplied), one district court recently has treated the $1,000,000 per year baseline as a floor for damages arising out of wrongful incarceration. See Smith v City of Oakland, 538 F. Supp. 2d 1217, 1242-43 (N.D. Cal. 2008) (citing Limone IV). We regard that characterization as unfortunate. As we have emphasized, the district court's awards are at the outer edge of the universe of permissible awards and survive scrutiny, though barely, only because of the deferential nature of the standard of review and the unique circumstances of the case.
(i) This was the actual court decision, as it was.
(ii) CA1 stands for United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, based in Boston. There are altogether twelves federal circuit courts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_court_of_appeals
(iii) Four Italian-American men were found wrongfully convicted of murders in a state court. Two lived and two died during imprisonment. The first two and estates of the latter two sued US, for reasons stated in the opinion. The trial judge, Nancy Gertner, is a liberal and awarded 100 million as a whole against United States. Tax would reduce the sum to about 60 million, from which plaintiffs' attorney would have take a cut.
(a) summary underneath the title in print: Lifts need smart software and advanced alloys to scale towers
(b) Quote:
"The Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is the first of a breed of ultratall buildings that will exceed 3,000 feet [less than 1km] in height. That’s more than twice as tall as New York’s Empire State Building. United Technologies’ Otis Elevator, Switzerland-based Schindler Group, and Finland’s Kone are racing to perfect technologies" to compete
"Engineers are determining the optimal speed for fans that control air pressure inside [elevator] cars, which can descend in a mega-high-rise building faster than a commercial airplane coming in for a landing, De Jong says. Jets may have 30 minutes to reduce cabin pressure as they approach the airport; elevators in the tallest buildings may have just 30 seconds to depressurize.