October 19th 2023.
The Baltimore City Board approved a $48 million settlement for the wrongfully convicted trio of Black men known as the "Harlem Park Three", who spent nearly 40 years behind bars. This settlement is the largest in Baltimore's history, as reported by CBS News.
Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart, and Ransom Watkins were all 16 years old when they were wrongfully convicted in 1983 for the murder of their childhood friend Dewitt Duckett. Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby issued a statement expressing his empathy for the trio and their families: "Today our city paid a moral, ethical, and financial debt left on us by a previous generation and decades of injustice. Nothing in this world can make up for the mental and emotional trauma that has been put on these innocent men and their families. No amount of compensation can right the wrongs of 36 years of turmoil and the residual effects on these men, their families, and communities."
The lawsuit against the City of Baltimore accused the police officers of coercing young witnesses to fabricate their involvement and of presenting a false narrative that placed the crime on the three individuals. They also ignored eyewitness accounts and physical evidence that pointed to a different suspect.
Mosby expressed his disappointment and said police officers should take more responsibility in cases of misconduct. He suggested that officers implicated in misconduct should pay a portion of the settlement from their pensions, to avoid using city funds to pay victims. He said, "The individual responsible should take some sort of ownership. It's problematic and we should look into it."
The money will be paid through a risk management fund from the city. After receiving lifetime sentences in 2019, the trio was exonerated and finally released in 2019 after spending 36 years in prison.
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