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2 Chicago men awarded $120M for wrongful convictions in 2003 murder
Two Chicago men who were wrongfully convicted of a 2003 murder were awarded a massive settlement from the city.
CHICAGO - Two Chicago men who were wrongfully convicted of a 2003 murder were awarded a massive settlement from the city.
Their attorneys said on Monday that the settlement of a combined $120 million was one of the largest in the nation.
The backstory:
John Fulton and Anthony Mitchell both spent 16 years behind bars for the murder.
Their lawyers said they were forced into making false confessions by Chicago police and Cook County prosecutors when they were teenagers.
A judge threw out their convictions and prosecutors dropped all charges against them in 2019. On Monday, a federal judge in Chicago awarded them the $120 million in damages.
The two men’s attorneys said Fulton spent more than 100 hours in a confession room. Mitchell spent more than 40 hours.
What they're saying:
Fulton spoke to the news media after the announcement of the settlement.
"Justice is finally here, and we got a lot of work to do," Fulton said on Monday. "There are a lot of people that are just like me that are wrongfully incarcerated in the justice system and they need to be brought home too. So the day of celebration will be when all the wrongfully incarcerated individuals that's incarcerated can step foot in the free world."
