U.S.
Seth Wenig / AP
New York City has agreed to pay $6.25 million to a man who spent nearly 25 years in prison before being exonerated of a 1989 New York City killing that happened while he was vacationing at Disney World.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer said Tuesday that settling Jonathan Fleming's claim is "in the best interest of all parties." Fleming filed notice last year that he planned to sue the city for $162 million.
A key eyewitness recanted, newly found witnesses implicated someone else, and prosecutors' review of authorities' files turned up documents backing Fleming's alibi. Prosecutors at the time of his conviction convinced a jury that Fleming flew round trip from Florida to New York in order to manufacture an alibi.
Advocates for prisoners who maintain their innocence say that witness identification can be wildly inaccurate and that it should not form the sole basis for a conviction in criminal cases.
Fleming's lawyers, Paul Callan and Martin Edelman, say the settlement will let him build a new life.
Caring for his sick mother, Fleming is unable to work and must get by on charity and handouts from relatives, USA Today reported.
Fleming was released in April last year after the Brooklyn district attorney's office agreed his alibi was valid.
Al Jazeera and the Associated Press
As eyewitness testimony is often flawed, advocates push to reform police lineups to increase chance of getting it right
Case highlights the unequal manner in which states pay those who have been wrongfully imprisoned
Jonathan Fleming was more than 1,000 miles from crime scene at the time, on a Disney World vacation
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