Hero Lobbyist Bills Exonerated Former Prisoners for Millions
Kevin Glasheen is a lawyer in Texas. He is also a lobbyist. He successfully lobbied the state to pass a bill raising the amount of money that it pays to inmates who are exonerated and freed after being wrongfully convicted and imprisoned. For completing this fine deed, Glasheen expects to be paid handsomely—by the freed inmates themselves.
It's only right that this wealthy attorney and lobbyist become even more filthy rich by taking a hefty cut of the money that society pays to make up for locking men in prison for decades, wrongly. The NYT tells the story of Glasheen's highly-paid heroics today; how, for example, he sent a million-dollar lobbying bill to Steven Phillips, an inmate exonerated after 25 years in prison, despite the fact that Phillips only hired him to be a lawyer, not a lobbyist.
Mr. Glasheen said all of his clients understood that the contracts covered fees for the lobbying effort - especially Mr. Phillips, whom he called "a sociopath" conditioned by the prison system to lie to survive.
Nice guy! "Do good deeds as long as you will be awarded a huge portion of the reward that should rightfully go to the person who was actually, you know, wronged," is what it says in the Bible, I think. Prison, or lawyers? Pick your poison, wrongfully convicted people.
