Kin win case for compensation
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a lower-court decision awarding Bt11.9million in compensation to the family of a man who spent years behind bars for a murder he did not commit.
The man's employer had claimed he was the rightful recipient.Thawat Kijprayoon spent many years in jail for the 1986 high-profile murder of Sherry Ann Duncan. Fresh evidence later cleared him and three others. Thawat died of cancer soon after his release. The courts ordered the police to compensate Thawat Bt11.9 million for wrongful conviction and imprisonment. The money was to be paid to Thawat's children and wife Wanwipa Pumala. But, Thawat's employer Winai Chaipanit produced a will naming Winai as a beneficiary. The lower courts ruled the will was fake, after which Winai appealed to the Supreme Court. Wanwipa said it had cost her Bt600,000 to contest Winai's claim. Thawat was wrongfully convicted of murdering 16-year-old Sherry Ann Duncan, who was a secret lover of Winai. Thai-American Sherry Ann was murdered in Samut Prakan in August 1986. The police quickly arrested four construction workers, including Thawat. The Criminal Court convicted them and imposed death sentences. They spent years behind bars until the Supreme Court overturned their convictions on new evidence in 1993. When the case was revived in 1995, a fresh inquiry led to the arrest of Suviboon Patpongpanich, the alleged mastermind behind the killing who was accused of hiring two men to kill Sherry Ann in revenge for an affair with Suviboon's boyfriend. The Supreme Court acquitted her in 1999 for lack of evidence. The high-profile case has been made into a film.
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