$9.9 million for man framed by Mafia cop

New York City will pay $9.9 million to a man who spent 19 years in prison after a Mafia-corrupted police detective framed him for murder.

Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, the so-called "Mafia cops," went away for eight murders and other crimes, many of them committed at the Mob's behest. After Eppolito was finally caught, a witness in Barry Gibbs' case testified that he lied because the detective bribed and threatened him. Investigators think Eppolito was trying to protect the real killers, who might have had Mob ties. Loved this quote from Gibbs:

"I hope he lives another 100 years," Gibbs said Thursday when asked about Eppolito. "Every day in prison is like a day of death. I should know."

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Keith G in PV!

(AP Photo/Hiroko Masuike, File)

'Murder victim' turns up alive

Chinese authorities have released a prisoner who confessed to killing another man with a hatchet, Reuters reports. They were moved to do so after the victim turned up alive. The prisoner's family says that police tortured him into confessing. The wrongly imprisoned man served 10 years, during which time his wife left him and his children were given to other families for adoption.

Platte Co. native helps free innocent man

If you get a minute, be sure to read Glenn Rice's story about Jane Cox Williams, a church volunteer who helped free Josh Kezer, a wrongly convicted man. Williams, who lives in Columbia, is a Platte County native. While volunteering at a prison, she became friends with Kezer and helped find lawyers to fight for him. (The case against Kezer had more holes than a corpse in a Tarantino film.) More here.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Keith G in PV!

Dead man gets official pardon

In Texas, the governor is preparing to sign the state's first-ever posthumous pardon. Tim Cole, who died in 1999, was sentenced to 25 years for a rape that he didn't commit. Cole continued to insist he was innocence, though DNA testing wouldn't back that up until 2008.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Keith G in PV!

Wrongly convicted man gets $4.1 million

We've written about Tim Masters before. The Colorado man spent 10 years in prison for a brutal murder and sexual mutilation that he didn't commit. (He's 38 now, but he was the target of investigators since he was 15.) Larimer County has agreed to pay him $4.1 million, and he's still negotiating with Fort Carson about a settlement. Here's hoping he gets a giant check, because the wrongful conviction basically ruined his life:

CNN: You spent some prime years of your life -- late 20s, early 30s -- in jail for a crime you didn't commit. What do you think you missed most by not being a free man in those years?

Masters: There's so much. Right off the top, I'd say having a family. I think they're very much responsible for me not having a family right now, a wife and kids. But it goes back further than just them arresting me. It goes all the way back to my high school days when they labeled me a murder suspect among all my peers and my teachers and everything. It goes back a long time.

Exonerated man to get $7.5 million from Riley County

The Journal-World has a great profile of Eddie Lowery, who spent 10 years in prison for a rape that he didn't commit. He's going to receive $7.5 million in a settlement from Riley County -- about $2,000 for every day he spent in prison. Lowery had served his sentence and even lied about taking part in the crime so that a parole board would let him go, but he tried to prove his innocence when he was told that he'd had to register as a sex offender. His lawyer was able to track down the rape kit, and DNA testing showed that he couldn't have committed the crime.

The detectives who put him away have not apologized. He doubts they ever will. It's nice that he's getting the money, but like a lot of wrongly convicted men, the experience has marked him.

But the years in prison have taken their toll on his relationships with some family members, and to this day trust is difficult for him. Since getting out of prison, Lowery keeps the receipts when he goes to the store so he can always prove his whereabouts.

“I know it sounds kind of crazy, but after you’ve been through something I’ve been through, it doesn’t sound as crazy,” he said.

Wrongly convicted man forgives accuser

CNN has a piece about Dean Cage, a Chicago man who spent 14 years in prison until he was cleared by DNA evidence, and how he's built a friendship with the woman who wrongly accused him of raping her. On the one hand, you've got to feel bad for the woman: She's already been the victim of a terrible crime, and now she's been handed the guilt of sending an innocent person away. Still, if I were the one who went to prison, I'm not sure how readily I could forgive her.

Wrongly convicted men say troubles continue after prison

Three wrongly convicted with Missouri ties -- Josh Kezer, Darryl Burton and Dennis Fritz -- spoke about their experiences yesterday in Columbia. They stressed that, even though they were freed, they still suffered problems because of their time in prison -- and the government, which sent them away, didn't really help them adjust back to real life.

Missouri provides $50 per day to former inmates exonerated by DNA evidence, but neither Burton nor Kezer could collect because they weren't cleared by DNA. Kezer noted that people on parole are eligible for benefits that he cannot receive, such as job training.

In this photo taken on Jan. 28, 2010, Josh Kezer speaks to a group of kids, in Columbia, Mo. Kezer was released from prison last year after a Cole County judge ruled that prosecutors improperly withheld key evidence from his defense attorneys. He was accused in the 1992 death of a southeast Missouri nursing student. (AP photo/L.G. Patterson)

Lawsuit against John Grisham, KC native dismissed

Grisham and KC native Dennis Fritz were sued over their books about the murder of Debra Sue Carter in Ada, Okla., back in the early 1980s. Fritz had a unique insight on the case: He was one of two men who were wrongly convicted of the slaying and were ultimately freed. (Grisham's take on the case was called "The Innocent Man.")

The prosecutor who handled the case, a police officer and a state criminologist sued for libel, to be specific. A federal appeals court in Denver has dismissed the suit.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, JUNGLE JIM!

Image: An older photo of Fritz signing copies of his book, "Journey Toward Justice."

Wrongly convicted man gets $7.5 million over rape charge

Manhattan and Riley County, with their insurance companies, are going to pay Eddie James Lowery $7.5 million for the 10 years that he spent behind bars before he was cleared. Lowery says the conviction -- and the time he spent as a registered sex offender -- caused his first marriage to break up.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Keith G in PV!

Wrongly convicted man gets $3.25 million

Boston has agreed to pay $3.25 million to Ulysses Rodriguez Charles, who spent 18 years in prison after he was convicted of raping three women during a home invasion. Charles was freed, though, after DNA tests couldn't tie him to the crime scene. (Prosecutors still contend that he merely failed to ejaculate, which is why there was no trace of him in the apartment. Two of the victims still believe Charles raped them.)

Charles sued, saying the authorities withheld evidence that could have cleared him. Though he's getting the $3.25 million, the federal government is working to deport him to Trinidad. He apparently got into other trouble, such as trafficking heroin in prison.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Keith G in PV!

Wrongly convicted man sues LAPD

You might remember the case of Bruce Lisker from earlier this year, when Lisker was freed after 26 years in prison and cleared of murdering his mother. Now? He's suing the city of Los Angeles, LAPD and the detectives who worked his case. Their behavior, he alleges in the federal suit, went beyond the level of making a mistake to actually framing him. (The L.A. Times did a big piece about the original murder investigation, raising questions.)

DNA frees convicted man after 35 years

In Florida, a man named James Bain has been freed from prison after new DNA testing showed that he didn't kidnap and rape a 9-year-old boy back in the early 1970s. Bain, who was convicted on the basis of the boy's eyewitness testimony, says he's not angry. He's served more time than any person freed through the work of the Innocence Project.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Keith G in PV!

Wrongly convicted man freed after 28 years

Thanks to new DNA tests, which showed that Donald Eugene Gates did not rape and murder a college student in 1981 in Washington, D.C. His conviction had been based partly on a hair analysis that experts now say isn't really scientific. He could theoretically qualify for $50K for every year he was imprisoned. For now, though, he was given $75 and a bus ticket from Arizona to his family in Ohio.

Girl accused man of rape so that friends would "feel sorry for her"

Then she got caught up in the lie as prosecution continued, sending a construction worker to prison on a 20-year sentence. The accused, William McCaffrey, was in prison almost three years.

New DNA evidence showed that the bite marks on the woman's arm were from two women, friends who she had apparently fought with before the fake rape.

Biurny Peguero, now 27, faces up to seven years in prison for perjury.

|Meredith Rodriguez

Is prosecutor unfairly targeting the Innocence Project?

Northwestern University's Innocence Project has helped free 11 men who were wrongly convicted. It's actually a class in the journalism school there. Students reinvestigate cases where they believe someone might have been sent to prison for something they didn't do, then present their results. The project's work has been very influential. Back in 2000, Illinois' then-Gov. George Ryan put a hold on the state's executions based largely on their reporting.

But they've hit a snag with their latest investigation. Cook County's prosecutor has agree to reopen the case against a convicted murderer, but he's seeking notes and information about the Innocence Project that goes beyond what they post online. He wants the students' grades, off-the-record interviews, emails, etc. The school is fighting the subpoena, and because Illinois has a shield law for journalists, they have a fighting chance of succeeding.

The prosecutor says he wants all of this background to make sure the students didn't have a bias -- that they weren't simply trying to prove the man innocent, even if he wasn't, because they simply wanted a good grade. Their instructor says that's beyond the point -- he says the project's findings are merely a starting point. The prosecutor still has to go back and interview the same people they did.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Keith G in PV!

Two wrongly convicted men set free in Texas

Claude Simmons Jr., 54, and Christopher Scott, 39, were serving life senteces for the 1997 Dallas murder of Alfonso Aguilar. That is until Alonzo Hardy, 49, confessed to the crime last summer.

Simmons and Scott, who were convicted 12 years ago of capital murder, were set free today.

| Bob Cronkleton

N.C. jails wrong man for 1 week

Jesse Ray Hardy Jr. of Greenville was thrown in jail for a week because he has the same name and hometown of a man wanted by the law. Only Hardy is 44, and the police were looking for a 21-year-old. They eventually freed him, but he didn't have a way home. Instead of, you know, DRIVING him there, the court took up a collection of $58 for a bus ticket and dinner at Hardee's. Mmm, Hardee's.

For pity's sake, don't get arrested in Dallas

Meet Richard Miles, who was sentenced to 40 years for a 1994 murder and shooting. He's about to be released, though, after his advocates learned that police failed to turn over evidence that could have helped clear him. He'll be the sixth man in two years to be freed in Dallas County because of authorities withholding evidence. This is on top of the many, many men who've been exonerated thanks to new DNA tests in Dallas County.

$287K grant for local Innocence Project

From Tony Rizzo: A federal justice grant of more than $287,000 has been awarded to the Midwestern Innocence Project. The non-profit organization covers a six-state region and said it will use most of the money to pay for two full-time paralegals over a two-year period.

New Texas law making millionaires out of those wrongly convicted

The new compensation law provides DNA exonerees $80,000 for every year they spent in prison. There is also lifetime annuity payments that for most are worth between $40,000 and $50,000 a year.

The compensation includes social services such as job training, tuition credits and access to medical and dental treatment.

| Bob Cronkleton

26 years later, judge overturns Cali man's conviction

The Los Angeles Times has a piece here about Bruce Lisker, who was convicted of his adoptive mother's 1983 murder. Following a newspaper investigation, though, a judge has ruled that Lisker was sent away on false evidence. And his original lawyer wasn't effective either. Lisker had confessed a couple of times -- but the judge believes they were attempts to get paroled because he didn't provide details from the crime. It isn't clear if the authorities will seek another trial.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Keith G in PV!

(AP Photo/Robert Durelll)

Exonerated man sues MO county, former sheriff

Josh Kezer spent about 16 years in prison for the murder of Angela Mischelle Lawless -- a crime that he didn't commit. He was freed back in February after a court decided that, not only was evidence hidden from the defense, new information undermined the case against him, the Southeast Missourian reports.

Now? He's suing Scott County, as well as the former sheriff and one of his deputies, saying they acted in bad faith and withheld evidence. (The sheriff and deputy now have a process-server business.) It's not clear how much he's seeking. But the county's insurance is good for $2.4 million.

The other intesting bit here? The plaintiffs won't say why their suit didn't include Kenny Hulshof, who acted as prosecutor in the original trial.

From The AP: Former inmate Joshua Kezer, 34, right, talks with Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter after being released Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009, from the Jefferson City Correctional Center in Jefferson City, Mo. Kezer had been imprisoned in 1992 for the murder of a college student. In 2006, Walter reopened the case.

Dog sends innocent man to prison for 26 years

John Preston and his scent-tracking dog were supposed to be "infallible." I guess "untrustworthy" might have been a better adjective. More here from Reason's Hit & Run blog.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Keith G in PV!

I'm sorry we ruined your life, pal -- here's $200K

An Illinois man, 30, has been cleared of a murder after spending something like 17 years in prison. That's right -- he was sentenced to prison at age 13. Now, prosecutors say somebody else did it. As a parting gift, the state will pay him $200K.