Jonathan Fleming, the New York City man who was wrongfully convicted and spent 25 years in prison, will be compensated to the tune of $6.2 million. Fleming is the man who, when the murder was committed, was vacationing in Disney World with his family. Despite receipts that proved he was in Orlando at the time, Fleming, now 53, was convicted of the crime.
New York City has agreed to pay $6.25m to a man who spent nearly 25 years in prison before being exonerated in a New York City killing that happened while he was vacationing at Disney World, the city comptroller said on Tuesday.
Comptroller Scott Stringer said that settling Jonathan Fleming’s claim is “in the best interest of all parties”.
“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,” Stringer said.
Fleming was released last year after the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said it had come to agree that his alibi – which he offered from the start – was valid.
His lawyers praised the city for moving expeditiously to settle with Fleming, who filed notice last year that he planned to sue for $162m.
“The swift settlement will enable Jonathan and his family to build a new life without the painful and costly prospect of further litigation,” attorneys Paul Callan and Martin Edelman said.
Her only son was behind bars for nearly half his life, convicted of shooting a friend in Brooklyn in August 1989, though he had told authorities he was more than 1,000 miles away at the time and had plane tickets, videos and other material to show it. A woman testified that she had seen him commit the crime.
The witness later recanted and other testimony implicated someone else. The evidence that Fleming had all along was validated and he was freed last year.
