The City of Concord has reached a $22 million settlement with a man wrongfully convicted in 1976.
Officials said the man spent more than 44 years in prison for “a crime he did not commit.” “We are deeply remorseful for the past wrongs that caused tremendous harm to the man and his family, friends, and our community,” the city said in a statement. “He suffered the extraordinary loss of his freedom and a substantial portion of his life because of this conviction.” The city said it takes responsibility for the wrongful conviction, and is “doing everything in |LS|its|RS| power to right the past wrongs.”
The man was convicted of first-degree rape and burglary on Oct. 1, 1976. He was released decades later on Aug. 31, 2020. A U.S. District Court ordered that his two life sentences be vacated days before the charges were dropped.
About 30 years after the man's conviction, his attorneys learned that investigators had tested more than a dozen pieces of evidence and had hidden the results. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the man's due process rights were violated by the suppression of material, favorable evidence at trial.
“Hopefully incidents like this can be avoided,” the plaintiff said after his release in 2020. “If you see injustice being done against somebody, then speak out against it. Speak out, if you don’t then hate it, hate it with all your heart.”
In its statement, the city continued saying it hopes the community can “move forward while learning valuable lessons and ensuring nothing like this ever happens again.” The city admitted to “significant errors in judgment and willful misconduct by previous city employees.”
Previously, the plaintiff reached a $3 million settlement with the NC State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). The total $25 million in settlements is the second-largest ever recorded following a wrongful conviction.
