American Man Gets $50 Million After 10 Years in Prison for Wrongful Conviction

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A U.S. jury has awarded $50 million in damages to a man who spent nearly 10 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of murder, his lawyers said Tuesday.

A federal jury in Chicago ruled Monday in favor of Marcel Brown, 34, awarding the largest compensation to a single wrongful conviction plaintiff in U.S. history, Loevy & Loevy, the law firm representing him said.

Brown was arrested and sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of being an accessory to the murder of a 19-year-old man in 2008.

But in 2018, charges against him were dropped and he was released after his lawyers presented evidence that his confession had been obtained illegally.

According to Loevy & Loevy, “Chicago police officers locked (Brown) in an interrogation room for more than 30 hours, interrogated him relentlessly, deprived him of food, refused his repeated requests for phone calls, and prevented him from sleeping.”

After a two-week trial in Chicago, the jury unanimously agreed with Brown’s defense team that “police coerced his statement and fabricated evidence,” the law firm said in its statement.

The jury awarded Brown $10 million in compensatory damages for the time between his arrest and conviction, and $40 million in damages for his time in prison and afterward.

“Justice was finally served for me and my family today,” Brown said outside court, according to his lawyers.

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