How much money is a person worth
Author Alice Sebold was raped but accused the wrong man in court. The innocent was in prison for a long time. Now he’s getting millions in compensation.
Vaguely apologized: Alice Sebold.
Photo: Keystone
The good news is still there: the US state of New York has just awarded 62-year-old Anthony Broadwater the sum of 5.5 million dollars for the injustice he suffered. According to the New York Times, he wants to buy a little house in the countryside with the money he has so much money and enjoy the rest of his life in peace. No one will begrudge him this belated happiness: a court in Syracuse had convicted him of raping an 18-year-old student, which he allegedly committed in 1981. Broadwater had repeatedly maintained his innocence and voluntarily submitted to polygraph tests several times, but he served 16 years in prison. He was denied early release because he did not want to confess to the crime.
When he was finally released in 1999, he was able to read about his crime in a book. It was called “Lucky” (in the German translation: “lucky”) and described the rape with all due drasticness. Months after the crime, the author herself had tracked down the perpetrator and reported very impressively about his “pleasure at having destroyed me”. “Lucky” was the victim’s attempt to free himself from the crime and to work through the trauma. The victim’s name was Alice Sebold and she became famous through her so-called memoir and also became rich.