Illinois man wrongly imprisoned for murder wins $50 million jury award
CHICAGO– A federal jury has awarded $50 million in damages to a suburban Chicago man who was acquitted of murder in 2018 and released from prison after spending about 10 years behind bars.
The jury’s unanimous verdict Monday in favor of Marcel Brown, 34, of Oak Park came after a two-week trial, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing federal court records.
Brown was arrested at age 18 and sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of being an accomplice in the 2008 murder of 19-year-old Paris Jackson in Chicago’s Galewood neighborhood, according to the federal lawsuit he filed in 2019.
Brown was released from prison in July 2018The criminal case against him was dropped after testimony from his mother and a lawyer hired by his mother, both of whom were not allowed to speak to him the night of his arrest.
Brown was declared innocent in 2019, according to the lawsuit he filed, which names the city of Chicago, a Chicago police department, a Cook County assistant district attorney, and Cook County as defendants.
Brown’s complaint accused the defendants of violating his constitutional rights and maliciously prosecuting him. It also alleged that the defendants intentionally caused him emotional distress when they prevented him from speaking with an attorney and extracted a false confession from him after more than a day of interrogation that was later found to be illegal.
In Monday’s decision, the jury split the damages award between $10 million for Brown’s pretrial detention and $40 million for the post-conviction period, according to a court filing. The jurors also ordered one of the detectives in the case to pay Brown $50,000 in punitive damages, court documents show.
Brown beamed Monday night as he addressed reporters after the verdict outside the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in downtown Chicago, surrounded by his attorneys and family members.
“Today, justice was finally done for me and my family,” Brown said. “We’re just grateful that we could be here today. Thank you, members of the jury.”
Attorney Locke Bowman of the Loevy law firm & Loevy said the verdict should be a “wake-up call” to city leaders “that it’s time to get a handle on the way the Chicago Police Department conducts its interrogations.”
A spokesman for Chicago’s law department said Monday night that the city is reviewing the ruling and assessing its options.