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![Innocent Innocent](/uploads/1/2/7/1/127126766/499220390.jpg)
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Amy Grant on Michael W. Smith: 'He's such a good, sweet, kind man' Their friendship started in 1980 when Amy Grant was a junior at Vanderbilt University and Michael W. Smith was an excitable guy.
Michael Smith (NZL Defendant) Charge:Child/Minor Sex Abuse (incl. Molestation)Sentence:6 yearsYears Imprisoned:1.25Year Crime:Year Convicted:1995Year Cleared:1996U.S. State or Country of Crime:New ZealandCounty or Region of Crime:City of Crime:Result:Judicially Exonerated ReleasedSummary of Case:'Michael Smith. was wrongly convicted in 1995 of sexually abusing his sons, then both under 12-years-old after they were nagged into making false accusation on video against their father by a family counselor. Smith's sons retracted their assertions within 48 hours of making them, but their father's lawyer wasn't told and he man was wrongly convicted and spent 14-1/2 months in prison before his conviction was quashed in 1996 by New Zealand's Court of Appeal.
In 1998 New Zealand's Cabinet issued guidelies for the ex gratia payment to persons wrongly convicted, with the starting point of $100,000 for every year a person or part of a year the person spent in prison plus expenses such as legal fees. In September 2000 Smith became the first person awarded compensation under the 1998 guidelines when he was awarded $570,696 in compensation by the New Zealand government: $400,000 for Smith and $170,696 in legal fees. The man's parents almost bankrupted themselves, and even mortgaged their home to pay a lawyer $50,000 for 'Michael's appeal. It was revealed in November 1997 that another man, Andrew Craig, had been imprisoned as the actual abuser, and that the three years he had abused the man's children included time that 'Michael' was in prison. The son said he initially agreed to falsely accuse his father as a way of getting back at him for disciplining him for 'being naughty.'
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