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PHOTO: Attorney Locke Bowman, left, turns to four of the Dixmoor Five, cleared by DNA after years in prison for rape and murder, Jonathan Barr, second from left, Robert Taylor, James Harden, back, and Shainne Sharp, right, during a news conference announcing a federal lawsuit accusing police of coercing false confessions, at Northwestern, Wednesday Oct. 17, 2012. The fifth of the five, Robert Veal was not present
In what appears to be the largest wrongful conviction settlement in state history, the Illinois State Police has agreed to pay $40 million to five men who were wrongly imprisoned for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Dixmoor, a spokesman for Gov. Pat Quinn said Tuesday.
The amount exceeds the $36 million Cook County agreed to pay in 1999 to four men known collectively as the Ford Heights Four, who were wrongly convicted of the 1978 murders of a young couple in the south suburb. It matches the amount the city of New York recently agreed to pay to the Central Park Five, the men who were arrested and convicted of the 1989 rape of a jogger.
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