Boston Pays $3M in Wrongful Conviction

Follow up to a post here of July 14, 2005. 3 million must have hurt somewhere! If only it were the crooked cops that were hurting but that is too much to expect, of course.

The city agreed to pay $3.2 million to a man whose wrongful conviction in the shooting of a police officer led the city to revamp its fingerprinting unit. The settlement with Stephan Cowans, who was freed in January 2004 after more than six years in prison, equaled what's believed to be the largest amount the city ever paid in a wrongful conviction case.

Cowans, 35, was sentenced to 35 to 50 years in the 1997 wounding of Sgt. Gregory Gallagher after the police department's fingerprinting unit matched him to a print that the shooter left behind on a glass of water. Cowans was exonerated by DNA evidence through the New England Innocence Project, and the fingerprinting unit was shut down. A report found that its officers lacked proper training and were unprepared to do complex analyses.

As part of the settlement, Cowans agreed to drop claims against the city, the Police Department and Gallagher, who had identified Cowans as the shooter, Boston city attorney William Sinnott said.

In March, the city agreed to pay $3.2 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Neil Miller, who served 10 years in prison after being convicted of raping a college student. DNA tests proved another man had committed the crime.

Report here




(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)