Five men who were wrongly convicted of raping and brutally beating a jogger in New York’s Central Park 25 years ago are being awarded $41 million (£25 million) in damages.
A federal judge has approved the payment from New York City on Friday, as Mayor Bill de Blasio called the settlement an “act of justice” that was “long overdue.”
The defendants, who are all black or Hispanic, were jailed as teenagers for the attack on a white woman and served 13 years in prison before their convictions were thrown out in 2002.
Their representatives argued that treatment of the case had racial undertones amid paranoia about the American city’s crime rate and the men’s initial admissions were the result of exhaustion and police coercion following lengthy interrogations.
They were eventually exonerated when Matias Reyes, a serial rapist and murderer, confessed in 2002 after DNA testing linked him to the scene.
Korey Wise, who at 16 was the oldest defendant at the time, served 13 years and will receive $12.25 million (£7.5 million) in the settlement that was first rumored in June.
The other four – Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Yusef Salaam – will be paid $7.1 million each (£4.3 million), roughly $1 million for each year of spent in jail.
Source: independent
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