Marcel Brown, who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 2008, has been awarded $50 million in damages, the largest payout for a wrongful conviction in US history. Brown was sentenced to 35 years in prison as an accomplice in a shooting on the west side of Chicago but was released in 2018 after his conviction was vacated and charges were dropped.
During a two-week trial, a jury found that police had fabricated evidence and coerced Brown into making a false confession. The law firm representing Brown, Loevy & Loevy, stated that police had locked him in an interrogation room for over 30 hours, deprived him of food, denied him a phone call, and prevented him from sleeping. They also threatened him with lengthy imprisonment and refused to let his mother and a lawyer help him during the interrogation.
In a statement released through his lawyers, Brown expressed his feelings of being just a kid thrown into a den of lions by the police, without any care or remorse. This case sheds light on the issue of police misconduct and coerced confessions in the criminal justice system. The $50 million awarded to Brown serves as a significant step towards holding law enforcement officials accountable for misconduct and wrongful convictions.
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