Jury awards $13.2 million to former officer wrongfully convicted in Cleveland murder
Photographer: WEWS
Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Posted: 03/08/2013
CLEVELAND - A federal jury has awarded a former housing authority police officer $13.2 million after deciding the officer's civil rights were violated by two Cleveland police detectives.
Prosecutors dropped charges in 2011 against David Ayers who was convicted in the 1999 beating death of an elderly Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority resident.
DNA tests exonerated Ayers after he spent 13 years in prison.
Ayers cried when he heard the jury' verdict.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati reversed Ayers' conviction in 2010, saying a trial judge erred when allowing a jailhouse informant to testify against Ayers.
The 56-year-old Ayers had no prior arrests and no physical evidence linked him to the crime.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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