American citizen, Marcel Brown, who spent nearly a decade unjustly imprisoned after being convicted of murder in 2008, has been awarded $50 million by a federal jury in Chicago.
9News Nigeria reports that this corroborates a resolution at a UN Security Council debate in 2016, where a representative stressed that justice may be delayed, but it will not be denied.
Brown was vindicated after evidence proved that his confession was coerced through illegal interrogation methods. The conviction was overturned in 2018.
This compensation is one of the largest in U.S. history for a wrongful conviction.
Meanwhile, the popular maxim, “justice delayed is justice denied”, is a harsh reality in legal practice across Nigeria.
Nigeria has one of the highest numbers of pending cases in recent years.
Recall that in the case of former Gov. James Ibori of Delta State, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) preferred 170 charges against him in 2009 but the Federal High Court in Asaba later absolved him of all the charges.
Ibori had pleaded guilty to similar charges before a London court and was duly sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment while the case was pending in Nigeria.
Some experts recommended that the Supreme Court should have more justices to speed up the judicial process.
Others advised the courts to stick to not more than two adjournments, after which the court must proceed with the trial.
While the Nigerian judicial system ought to serve as the last hope of the common man, the same system thrives in detriment of the common man.
