Ohio state board approves $3.6 million for three wrongfully imprisoned men
The Plain Dealer reports Ohio Innocence Project exoneree receives compensation
The Ohio Controlling Board approved awarding nearly $3.6 million to three men wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for crimes in Cleveland that they didn’t commit.
The Plain Dealer reported the payments included an additional $2.6 million to Dwayne Brooks and more than $475,000 each in initial payments to Michael Sutton and Kenny Phillips. These are the latest in a series of payments from the state of Ohio to people who were incarcerated for decades before they were later exonerated, the newspaper reported.
Brooks, a 59-year-old New York man, had already received a $1.1 million payment last year after serving 35 years in prison for a 1987 murder in Luke Easter Park. He was freed in 2023 after a Cuyahoga County judge ruled that police and prosecutors withheld police reports and witness statements from Brooks’ defense.
Kenny Phillips and Michael Sutton. Photo provided.
Sutton, 37, and Phillips, 36, both from Cleveland, Ohio, were 17-year-olds when two people were shot and there was an attempt to shoot a Cleveland police officer in 2006. The two men were convicted at trial and spent 15 years in prison. Sutton’s case was re-examined by the Ohio Innocence Project at UC Law while Phillips was represented by the Wrongful Conviction Project (WCP) at the Ohio Public Defender Commission.
Sutton’s conviction rested on testimony from two police officers on the scene. Years later, this testimony was called into question after lawyers discovered the officers initially told prosecutors a different version of events that was never presented during trial.
Both men were freed in May 2021 and later found not guilty of all charges by a jury retrial in September 2022 in Cuyahoga County.
"Michael and Kenny spent their entire early adulthood in prison for crimes they didn’t commit," explains Donald Caster, a professor at UC Law and staff attorney for the Ohio Innocence Project. "No amount of money can fix that. But it’s gratifying to see them receive some measure of compensation as they continue to rebuild their lives."
Read the full story in the The Plain Dealer online.
Learn more about the Ohio Innocence Project online.
Featured top image of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. Photo/Istock.
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