Two Wrongfully Convicted US Men Awarded $9 Million after Serving 16 Years in Jail

Local Editor

After serving 16 years in prison on double murder charges they were wrongfully convicted for, two US men have reached a $9 million settlement deal with local and state officials.

The case dates all the way back to 1989, when two men were killed during a drive-by shooting in Manhattan's Lower East Side that also left two other people wounded.
Both Anthony Ortiz, 44, and Danny Colon were charged in the killing, and they were found guilty in 1993.

Colon and Ortiz sued New York City, the state, and the New York City Housing Authority, since the killings occurred at a city housing project.

"This case demonstrates that the illegal tactics used by New York City detectives and prosecutors to bring about so many wrongful convictions during the ‘Drug Wars' of the late 1980s and 1990s were not limited to Brooklyn," said the men's attorney, Joel Rudin.

"The money can't possibly make up for what they suffered," he added.

Meanwhile, Ortiz said the settlement would allow him to "not worry" about financial considerations, though it won't "end the suffering I know I'm going to have to contend with."

"I am scarred by losing so many years of my life," he said. "I lost the opportunity to raise my son, and I can never get that back..."

Under the terms of the newly reached settlement, Ortiz will receive $6.5 million and Colon will get $2.5 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.

This settlement is not the only one that New York has agreed to recently. Recently a couple weeks ago, the city agreed to pay $2.25 million to the mother of a former Marine who died in an overheated cell on Rikers Island. The mentally ill man was found dead in heat that was over 100 degrees.

New York City settlements also came under the microscope recently when the city law department released documents showing that $428 million has been paid out in police-related settlements since 2009.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team