By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
A US jury has awarded $50 million in damages to a man who spent nearly 10 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder, his lawyers said Tuesday.
A federal jury in Chicago on Monday ruled in favor of Marcel Brown, 34, giving the largest award to a single wrongful-conviction plaintiff in US history, Loevy & Loevy, the law firm representing him said.
Brown was arrested and sentenced to 35 years in prison after he was convicted of being an accomplice in the 2008 murder of a 19-year-old man.
But in 2018 the case against him was dropped and he was released after his lawyers presented evidence that the confession had been obtained from him 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, denied his repeated requests for a phone call, and prevented him from sleeping.”
After a two-week trial in Chicago, the jury unanimously agreed with Brown’s defense team “that the 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 after.
“Justice was finally served for me and my family today,” Brown said outside the court, according to his lawyers.