Record compensation Two men spent 16 innocent years in prison - now they are multimillionaires

After 16 years of innocent imprisonment for murder, two men in the USA are now receiving record compensation totaling 120 million dollars.

First they were wrongly imprisoned for years for murder, now they will receive several million dollars in compensation: John Fulton and Anthony Mitchell spent 16 years of their lives in prison for a crime they did not commit. A jury has now awarded them a total of 120 million dollars - the highest sum ever received by innocent convicts in the USA.

Fulton and Mitchell were sentenced to 31 years in prison in 2006 for a murder committed in 2003. The then 17 and 18-year-olds were put under pressure to confess, which proved to be their undoing: They allegedly killed Christopher Collazo, whose body was found in an alley at the time, bound with duct tape, his mouth taped shut. A fire had burned most of his body.

No evidence, no eyewitnesses

A caller reported the fire at the time. He had seen two men running away, but was unable to provide an exact description. Although there was no convincing evidence or eyewitnesses, Fulton and Mitchell were arrested and convicted. However, there was one connection: a month earlier, Fulton had allegedly tried to buy a gun from the later victim, but had been robbed by him and his gang.

The central basis of the conviction, however, was a confession made by John Fulton after days of interrogation, in which he incriminated himself, Mitchell and a third person. A judge later ruled that this had been obtained under massive pressure and should not have been used. It was not until 2019 that a court overturned the murder convictions.

"Justice is finally here"

"Justice has finally been served, but we still have a lot of work to do," explained Fulton after the verdict, which awarded both men 60 million dollars in compensation each. He pointed out that there are many other innocent convicts who are still waiting to be released.

Mitchell and Fulton had filed a lawsuit against the city of Chicago and the responsible county in 2020. They accused the investigators of forcing Fulton to make false statements under pressure. The jury followed this argument and has now set the record sum. The city of Chicago intends to appeal the verdict, according to reports.

Meanwhile, Fulton explained that the millions cannot make up for the lost years. "I would have preferred that all the police officers involved spend 16 years in prison and experience what I had to go through," he is quoted as saying by the Chicago Sun Times. "They should see friends and family turn their backs on them because they believe the allegations."