The state of Ohio has agreed to pay $337,000 to a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for arson.
The Ohio Court of Claims on Tuesday approved the settlement between the state and Jack Dempsey, a Cleveland man who served more than 6 1/2 years after being convicted of aggravated arson and burglary in 1996.
A federal district court ordered a new trial. At a second trial in 2007, Dempsey was found not guilty of all charges.
Police had accused him of burning down a building in Cleveland, but a Cuyahoga County judge recently found that the fire actually was part of a plot to kill Dempsey, who had been drugged and left in the basement of the burning building.
