Connecticut man gets $6m award after being wrongly jailed for 21 YEARS for rape and murder
By Anneta Konstantinides For Mailonline and Associated Press
A man who was wrongfully imprisoned for 21 years for the rape and murder of a mother of four was awarded $6million from the state of Connecticut.
Kenneth Ireland, 44, was jailed when he was 18 and released in 2009 after DNA tests proved another man fatally beat and raped 30-year-old Barbara Pelkey in Wallingford.
The other man, Kevin Benefield, is serving a 60-year prison sentence for killing the mother-of-four.
Mr Ireland was issued the award yesterday under Connecticut's wrongful incarceration compensation law.
State claims commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr issued the award to Mr Ireland and said in a report: 'No words or dollar amount will suffice to give him back the time that he lost and the misery that he endured.
'Mr. Ireland was wrongfully convicted and was labeled a murderer and sex offender and was forced to spend a long portion of his life in maximum security prisons.
'He experienced 21 years of violence, sleepless nights and the constant fear and hopelessness that he would die in prison as an innocent man.'
The new DNA testing came after the Connecticut Innocence Project, which looks into potentially wrong convictions, began reviewing Ireland's case in 2007.
Mr Ireland outlined the daily terror he experienced while in jail during the state's hearing to decide his compensation.
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