US Woman Awarded $34 Million For Wrongful Conviction After 16 Years In Jail

A Nevada woman, who spent nearly 16 years in jail for a crime she never committed, was awarded $34 million (around Rs 283 crore) by a federal jury after it concluded that local police deliberately caused her emotional suffering during their investigation. The verdict was delivered in favour of 41-year-old Kirstin Blaise Lobato, who now goes by Blaise. The decision followed a federal civil trial, news agency AP reported.

Blaise's case has been a long and harrowing ordeal. According to her lawyers, retired Las Vegas detectives Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle were accused of falsifying evidence during their investigation of the 2001 murder of Duran Bailey, a homeless man in Las Vegas. As part of the judgment, Blaise will receive $34 million in damages from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, along with $10,000 (around Rs 8.3 lakh) in punitive damages from each of the retired officers.

The case garnered widespread attention over the years, with Blaise's defence being headed by the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to overturning wrongful convictions. The organisation took interest in Blaise's case after the Nevada Supreme Court ordered a re-examination of the evidence in 2016.

In 2001, 18-year-old Blaise was charged with the murder of Bailey, whose mutilated body was found next to a dumpster in a Las Vegas parking lot. Bailey's skull was fractured, his teeth were missing, and his carotid artery was slashed. Earlier, Blaise had been attacked while visiting Las Vegas and fought off an attempted sexual assault in a motel parking lot, using a knife her father had given her. She told police the attacker was alive when she left, a statement that later contributed to her arrest.

The case took a controversial turn when a tip claimed Blaise had bragged about severing a man's penis. Police took her statement, where she explained the attack occurred weeks earlier, but her words were presented as a confession. The prosecution had no physical evidence linking Blaise to Bailey's death, relying instead on her statement and testimony from inmate Korinda Martin, who claimed Blaise had bragged about a botched drug deal. However, Blaise's defence presented an alibi, supported by neighbours and family, proving she was miles away from the crime scene.

Blaise was convicted in 2002, but the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the verdict in 2004. After a retrial in 2006, she was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 13 to 45 years. In 2017, her defence presented expert testimony from entomologists who disputed the prosecution's timeline. They argued Bailey likely died around 10 pm on July 8, 2001 — when Blaise's alibi was confirmed — contradicting the state's claim of an early-morning death.

“Blowflies arrive very shortly after death and lay hundreds of easily observable eggs in a freshly dead body's orifices and wounds,” the Innocence Project stated on its website.

Clark County District Court Judge Stefany Miley vacated Blaise's conviction in December 2017, citing ineffective legal representation that had failed to bring such expert testimony earlier. Later that month, the District Attorney's Office dropped all charges against her, and Blaise was released on January 3, 2018.