SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - The Springfield City Council has approved a $6.5 million settlement for a man who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit.
The settlement negotiated and recommended by the city law department came more than a year after a federal jury awarded more than $27 million to Mark Schand, who said in a 2015 lawsuit that police investigators made a series of errors that led to his conviction in the 1986 slaying of a woman outside a city nightclub.
Police defended the integrity of their investigation.
Councilors on Monday said the potential liability of well over $20 million forced them to make the difficult decision of approving the settlement, Masslive.com reported.
“It’s always frustrating when you have to continuously dish out taxpayer money to resolve police misconduct cases,” council President Justin Hurst said Tuesday.
Schand was granted a new trial in October 2013, and the Hampden district attorney dropped the case a few weeks later. The city’s attorney told councilors that a number of witnesses who testified at Schand’s original trial recanted their statements while others had died.
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