CHICAGO: A US couple wrongly jailed for 21 years on
charges of sexually assaulting children as part of a satanic cult, received
US$3.4 million (RM14.5 million) Wednesday from the state of Texas, months after
prosecutors acknowledged their innocence.
Operators of a daycare facility, Dan and Fran Keller were
at the center of a sensational case in 1991, accused by children of abuse and
dark rituals that included dismembering babies and torturing pets.
Authorities later acknowledged that the children were
improperly interviewed, triggering false memories, amid a climate of fear
fueled by a belief around the nation that satanists were preying upon children.
The physician who claimed to have discovered physical
evidence of abuse also acknowledged in 2013 that he had made a mistake in
assessing the source of one of the children's injuries.
The Kellers were freed from prison that year, but not
fully cleared of the charges against them until last June, when prosecutors
finally declared them innocent.
By Texas law, both are entitled to US$80,000 compensation
for each year they spent in prison. They picked up a US$3.4 million payment on Wednesday,
their lawyer Keith Hampton told AFP.
"They are happy," Hampton said.
The couple had been living in poverty since their
release, unable to find work in their advanced age and with their past legal
troubles, according to the Austin American-Statesman newspaper.
"This means we don't have to worry about pinching
pennies on Social Security, and late bills. It means we will actually be free.
We can start living – and no more nightmares," Fran Keller, 67, told the
newspaper.
She broke down in tears Tuesday in front of news cameras
as she found out on the phone that the state would provide compensation.
"I really would like an apology from the state. But
since we're not going to get it verbally, this will be good enough," the
American-Statesman reported Fran Keller as saying.
Between 1991 and mid-2016, Texas had paid 101 wrongfully
convicted prisoners US$93.6 million, according to the Texas Tribune. —
Source:AFP
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Society