$1.2m for man wrongly convicted of murder

New York authorities will pay $1.25m to a man who spent 14 years behind bars before being cleared in the notorious murder of a bouncer at the city's former Palladium nightclub.

A Manhattan federal judge signed off on the deal with David Lemus yesterday, after he filed a $50m suit against police and prosecutors who locked him up for the 1990 shooting.

Lemus, 40, and another man, Olmedo Hidalgo, were found guilty in 1992, but their convictions were overturned in 2005 after evidence surfaced tying two other men to the killing of Marcus Peterson outside the New York hot spot.

All charges were dropped against Hidalgo, who was deported to the Dominican Republic. Lemus, who now lives in Florida, was acquitted after a 2007 retrial.

"No amount of money can fairly compensate Mr Lemus for spending his youth being shuffled from prison to prison," said his lawyer, Steven Schiesel.

Original report here



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts on Wicked Thoughts Archive