A federal jury in Chicago on Monday awarded an Illinois man who spent nearly 10 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of murder more than $50 million, among the largest rewards for such a case in the United States.
The man, Marcel Brown, 34, of Berwyn, Ill., had filed a federal lawsuit in 2019 accusing the city of Chicago, Chicago police detectives, the county and the assistant state’s attorney of having violated his civil rights during its investigation into a 2008 killing.
“It was like the first time I was able to tell my side,” Mr. Brown said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “It was unreal. I was crying holding my lawyer’s hand. I was just thankful that justice was finally being served.”
After a two-week trial, a jury in U.S. District Court in Chicago deliberated for two hours before it unanimously agreed with Mr. Brown’s lawyers that the police had fabricated evidence and coerced his false confession to having killed a man in a park, according to court records.
In 2008, Mr. Brown was arrested after a woman falsely accused him of being an accomplice in the Aug. 30, 2008 murder of Paris Jackson, who was found shot dead the next day in a park in northwest Chicago, according to the lawsuit. Mr. Brown, who was arrested in September 2008, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2011 and sentenced to 35 years in prison, the lawsuit contended, in large part because of statements he made while he was being interrogated by the police.
In June 2018, Mr. Brown’s lawyers sought a new trial based on the accusation that detectives had refused to grant Mr. Brown access to a lawyer in 2008, his lawyers said. An evidentiary hearing was held that showed that methods that had been used to interrogate Mr. Brown were “manifestly illegal,” according to the lawsuit said.
A Circuit Court judge in Cook County threw out Mr. Brown’s conviction and ordered a new trial, according to the suit. In July 2018, the Cook County state’s attorney dismissed all charges against Mr. Brown. He was released from prison that year.
According to Mr. Brown’s lawsuit, the police officers who investigated the murder in 2008 kept him in a windowless room for 34 hours, deprived him of sleep and adequate nutrition, did not allow his lawyer to meet with him and “employed illegal and coercive questioning” to force him to make a false confession.
“Marcel was worn down and psychologically abused,” Locke Bowman, a lawyer for Mr. Brown, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “It’s pretty nightmare-ish.”
The lawsuit also accused the defendants of violating his Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
“The Chicago Police Department has for many years tolerated and even rewarded Police detectives who ‘solve’ serious crimes,” the lawsuit contended, “via coercive interrogations, frequently targeting young, African-American men and boys.”
In an email, the city of Chicago said it was “reviewing the verdict and assessing its legal options.” The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office declined to comment. The Chicago Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while the officers could not be reached directly. The county also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“I was just a kid,” Mr. Brown said in a the statement from his lawyers. “They put me in a den full of lions, and they didn’t care or show remorse.”
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