Kenneth Ireland - A man who was wrongfully incarcerated for 21 years for the rape and murder of a woman in 1986, has been exonerated and awarded $6 million in compensation.
Kenneth Ireland, was found guilty and sentenced to prison at the age of 18 for the murder of Barbara Pelkey, a 30-year-old mother of four.
After spending more than 19 years in prison, in 2009, with the assistance of the Connecticut Innocence Project, new DNA technology provided evidence to prove Ireland's innocence.
The new DNA tests proved that another man Kevin Benefield, Pelkey's co-worker, was guilty of the crime. In 2012, Benefield was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the Wallingford murder.
In April 2014, Kenneth Ireland filed for wrongful incarceration and demanded a compensation of more than $6 million from the Office of the Claims Commissioner. On Thursday, he became the first person to be compensated by the state for wrongful incarceration.
"I'm just going to enjoy the rest of my life and, you know, hopefully do some traveling, see some things I only read about," Kenneth Ireland, who is now 44 years old, said after being awarded $6 million in compensation.
"It still hasn't completely registered yet," he said. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all."
"Mr. Ireland was wrongfully convicted and was labeled a murder and sex offender and was forced to spend a long portion of his life in maximum security prisons, where he experienced twenty one years of violence, sleepless nights and the constant fear and hopelessness that he would die in prison as an innocent man," Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr. said, adding that Ireland's compensation will not be subjected to state taxes.
"While this decision attempts to compensate Mr. Ireland for the time that he was wrongfully imprisoned, no words or dollar amount will suffice to give him back the time that he lost and the misery that he endured."
Governor Dan Malloy has expressed regret at the state's wrongful incarceration of Ireland, who he has since appointed to the Connecticut Parole Board.
"I was probably the most angry, bitter person you could imagine. But as soon as the cuffs came off and I walked out a free man, it was like a switch was flipped," Ireland said."I don't have room in my life for negativity of being angry....I decided to concentrate on the future, not dwell on the past."
