Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart were 16 when they were arrested on Thanksgiving Day 1983 and were charged in the murder of DeWitt Duckett, 14. They were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. 36 years later, they were declared innocent. Now, the three men will receive $48 million from the city after a vote Wednesday by the Baltimore City Board of Estimates, The Washington Post reported.
"These are men who went to jail as teenagers and came out as young grandfathers in their 50s," Baltimore Police Department chief legal counsel Justin Conroy told the city's Board of Estimates before the panel approved the payment on Wednesday.
The three men also received $2.9 million from the state of Maryland in 2020 under a compensation plan created for exonerees.
The three men were declared innocent after Mr Chestnut filed a public records request. He discovered new evidence that was kept from his attorneys during the trial and contacted Baltimore's Conviction Integrity Unit, which was reviewing old convictions, CNN reported.
The lawsuit said that the investigators had ignored eyewitness evidence and physical evidence that contradicted their chosen narrative. The investigators shaped the evidence to implicate plaintiffs- including by coercing false testimony from young witnesses.
The suit said that John Doe who actually killed the victim had died.
"On November 25, 2019, three days before Thanksgiving Day, a judge granted the writ of actual innocence (jointly filed by Plaintiffs and the State of Maryland) and ordered their immediate release," the suit said.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement read at the meeting that settlements like it "speak to gross injustices" against residents and said the families involved deserve compensation.
"Our city is in a position where in 2023 we are literally paying for the misconduct of (Baltimore Police Department) officers decades in the past," Scott said. "This is just part of the price our city must pay to right the wrongs of this terrible history."
In a statement published on WBAL-TV.com, City Council President Nick Mosby, who is also chair of the Board of Estimates, said "Our hearts are with Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart, Ransom Watkins and their families."
"Nothing in this world can make up for the mental and emotional trauma that has been put on these innocent men and their families. No amount of compensation can right the wrongs of 36 years of turmoil and the residual effects on these men, their families, and communities."
