I know the attorneys are just doing their jobs, but still...

...this strikes me as an awful instance of shirking responsibility...

Lawyers for a man wrongly convicted in a sexual assault case asked jurors on Tuesday to make the city of Houston pay George Rodriguez $35 million, while a city attorney asked they give him nothing.
...
Rodriguez, who along with another of his lawyers sometimes teared up during the final arguments, spent 17 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted in the 1987 kidnapping and sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.
A Houston Police Department crime lab analyst lied in Rodriguez’s trial about body fluids from the crime scene, saying evidence excluded another suspect, but not Rodriguez. DNA evidence later cleared Rodriguez and pointed to the other suspect.
...
City attorneys have said it was not city policies or then-Police Chief Lee P. Brown that was responsible for the wrongful conviction. Instead they’ve blamed the ex-city employee and suggested the trial prosecutor and defense attorney had a part.

It might well have been the fault of those people, but the fact is they were working as agents of the city of Houston, on the payroll of the city. So for all practical intents and purposes it would seem to me that The City was indeed to blame for what happened to Mr. Rodriguez. And they should be on the hook for that. To the tune of what amount I don't know, but 17 years is worth a hell of a lot if you ask me, considering that is time he'll never, ever get back. I don't know if I would trade 17 years of my life for $35 million, but considering the city forcibly took that from him it seems like at least a start.