There is no way of knowing what this man may have accomplished IF his freedoms were not removed. He could have found a cure for cancer...he could have started a business that employed many others and thus affected their lives...he could have gone into politics and been a contender for the the presidency and affected everyones life I have no way of knowing what might have been for this man...but $2.4 million is not a lot of money and I would hope that he has some restraint on spending it until he has some formal plans to make the best use of it. I do know this...Placing your life's accomplishments or the lack thereof on what this man could have accomplished tells us more about your life than what he may have accomplished given the same freedoms you've enjoyed.
It's really twisted that you'd try to make these contrivances to trivialize the imprisonment of an innocent man for 30 years. Not to mention the fact that it's now going to cost the state 2 and half million on top of whatever it cost to falsely imprison him for 30 years. That's not the "only difference". The other differences are the we got to spend most of our lives with our friends or families, or however we chose to spend it. We enjoyed our free will, and our own personal pursuit of happiness. This man had 30 years worth of life stolen from him for a crime he didn't commit, and you are trivializing it. Yet you'll whine, cry, and stomp your feet over someone smoking marijuana... Unbelievable.