New York to pay wrongfully imprisoned man $6.25 million

Jonathan Fleming (center) talks with reporters after exiting a courtroom in New York, on April 8, 2014. (AP photo)

New York City has agreed to pay $6.25 million to a black man wrongfully imprisoned for nearly 25 years for a murder he didn't commit.

The settlement, reached on Tuesday with the office of the city comptroller, comes more than a year after a judge ordered the release of Jonathan Fleming, 53, from prison.

Fleming had been found guilty of the August 1989 shooting death of a drug trafficker despite being with his family in Orlando, Florida.

He was freed in April 2014 after his conviction was overturned by the Brooklyn district attorney.

"Mr. Fleming spent nearly half of his life behind bars for a crime that evidence available at the time proved he could not have committed," New York City comptroller Scott Stringer said.

"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."

Fleming spent a quarter of century in prison before being exonerated in a killing that took place while he was more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away vacationing at Disney World, Stringer said.

Evidence that was not disclosed to the defense during his trial — which would have confirmed his alibi for the August 1989 slaying in a Williamsburg project — was unearthed during a review of the case by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.

That included a phone receipt from an Orlando hotel showing he was there just hours before the murder and a report from local police, which interviewed hotel staff who remembered him. Both documents were found in the case file.

After signing the settlement documents, Fleming left for the hospital to be with his dying mother.

"The swift settlement will enable Jonathan and his family to build a new life without the painful and costly prospect of further litigation," Fleming’s lawyers Paul Callan and Martin Edelman said in a joint statement.

Fleming said, “It's a bittersweet moment. On the same day I'm signing this settlement, I'm taking my mother off of life support."

"When I was in prison, my mother told me she prayed and asked God for her to live long enough to witness me getting out of prison," Fleming said.

"When I got out, she told me she asked God to please get some time with me. And, she got that," he stated.

According to a study released last year, one in every 25 death row inmates in the United States is innocent. Approximately 3,000 US prisoners are waiting to be put to death.

African-Americans are also far more likely to be arrested and imprisoned by police than any other racial group, according to a analysis by USA TODAY.

Experts say the dramatic gap in arrest and prison rates reflects biased policing as well as the vast economic and educational inequalities that plague much of the US.