Wrongly imprisoned California man gets $21M settlement

A city in California announced on Saturday a $21 million settlement with a man who spent nearly 40 years in jail after he was wrongly convicted of killing his girlfriend and her son.

Craig Coley reached an arrangement with the city of Simi Valley, located roughly 40 miles from Los Angeles. Coley was released from prison in 2017 when he was pardoned by then-Gov. Jerry Brown (D).

{mosads}“While no amount of money can make up for what happened to Mr. Coley, settling this case is the right thing to do for Mr. Coley and our community,” City Manager Eric Levitt said in a statement.

The city said it will pay about $4.9 million to Coley, and the rest is expected to be covered by insurance and other sources.

The Associated Press reported that Coley was wrongly convicted in 1978 of killing 24-year-old Rhonda Wicht and her 4-year-old son.

Brown pardoned Coley, now 71, after tests showed it was not his DNA on the victim’s bedsheet, but that of an unknown man. Coley also had an alibi for the time of the killings, the AP reported.

The state had previously approved a separate $2 million payment to Coley, the AP reported.