In 1990, Jonathan Fleming was sentenced to life in prison after he was found guilty of murder. But today he is a free man. The conviction was overturned after he spent 24 years of his life behind bars for a killing he did not commit.
The City of New York has announced that it will pay the now 53-year-old Fleming $6.25 million in a settlement after he said he planned to sue the city for his wrongful conviction.
In 1989, Fleming was vacationing in Disney World in Orlando, Florida when his friend, Darryl Rush, was murdered in Brooklyn. Although Fleming provided all the plane tickets, videos, phone records and other materials to prove his alibi was sound, prosecutors at the time still maintained that he had killed Rush after an argument over money.
They also had an eyewitness who claimed she saw Fleming shoot Rush despite him being 1,000 miles away, but she recanted her statement.
Last year, Fleming was finally released after years of appeals. According to reports, the district attorney's office in Brooklyn finally agreed two decades later that his alibi was valid.
But the City of New York says that it cannot replace the years of Fleming's life spent wrongfully in prison, which is one of the reasons why they came to the swift settlement.
"We cannot give back the time that he served, but the City of New York can offer Jonathan Fleming this compensation for the injustice that was committed against him," said Comptroller Scott Stringer.
In the 14 months since his release, Fleming has been spending his freedom with his ailing mother who only two weeks ago went into cardiac arrest and has been on life support.
The money coming from the settlement is "bittersweet" according to Fleming, who lives with his ex-wife but has been struggling financially since his release. On the same day he signed the settlement papers, he returned immediately to the hospital where his 73-year-old mother was to be taken off life support and may be near death.
With the money from the settlement, Fleming says he plans to give his family a better life, one that he could not give after spending nearly half of his own life in prison.
"Being locked up in a cage for something that you didn't do - no one should ever have to experience that. And I feel that I should have been compensated with something, with all these years that was taken away from me," he told interviewers.
In addition to the settlement with the city, Fleming also plans to sue the state for his wrongful conviction.
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