A US jury has awarded $50 million in damages to Marcel Brown, who was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent nearly a decade in prison.
The ruling, handed down by a federal jury in Chicago on Monday, is the largest award ever granted to a single wrongful-conviction plaintiff in US history, according to his law firm, Loevy & Loevy.
Brown, 34, was initially sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted in 2008 for his alleged role as an accomplice in the murder of a 19-year-old man.
However, in 2018, new evidence led to the dismissal of his case, revealing that his confession had been illegally obtained.
Loevy & Loevy reported that Chicago police officers had subjected Brown to over 30 hours of intense interrogation without food, phone access, or sleep.
The confession was obtained under these harsh conditions, which were later deemed to be coercive and unjust.
“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,” the law firm stated.
After a two-week trial, the jury unanimously found that the police had coerced Brown’s statement and fabricated evidence against him.
The jury awarded Brown $10 million in compensatory damages for the period between his arrest and conviction, and an additional $40 million for the time he spent in prison and the impact on his life thereafter.
“Justice was finally served for me and my family today,” Brown said outside the court, as reported by his lawyers.
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