Jonathan Fleming, 53, will receive € 5.5 million from the city of New York, the United States, for having been falsely accused of a murder for which he spent 24 years behind bars.
In 1989, African-American inmate was convicted by jury of shooting a drug dealer Darryl Rush, Brooklyn northeast of New York while he was in Orlando, Florida at the time. After spending 24 years of his life in prison for a crime he never committed, Jonathan Fleming finally released in April 2014.
"Mr. Fleming has spent almost half of his life behind bars while the evidence available at the time, showed that he could not have committed" the crime of which he was accused, said Scott Stringer, controller to the city of New York.
"We can not give him the time he spent in prison".
The city of New York has decided, Tuesday, June 24, 2015, to pay 5.5 million euros (6.25 million US dollars) in compensation. "We can not give him the time spent (in prison), but the city of New York has to offer this compensation for the injustice he suffered," he explained.
The agreement "will allow Jonathan and his family to build a new life without the painful and costly prospect of a new trial," responded his lawyers Paul Callan and Martin Edelman. To prove his innocence, Jonathan Fleming has always maintained a hotel receipt dated August 14, 1989 at 9:27 p.m., four hours before the murder of more than 1600 kilometers of this place.
The case of Jonathan Fleming is not unique to the United States. Dozens more are currently under study by a special unit of Brooklyn. Several of these cases involve police investigations Louis Scarcella, now retired, suspected to have used illegal methods.
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