Ricky Jackson, 59, and his friends Ronnie and Wiley Bridgeman were all exonerated in November 2014 for the 1975 murder of businessman Harry Franks after Eddie Vernon, then 12, said he saw them commit the crime.
Vernon recanted his testimony last year and said he had been pressured and threatened by police to testify.
Jackson’s $2 million award is based on Ohio’s base rate for wrongful conviction compensation, which is $40,330 per year spent in jail. It includes lost wages and is adjusted for inflation.
Jackson’s settlement in comparison to Juan Rivera, 42, who was awarded the money in the highest individual settlement given in a wrongful conviction case in U.S. history. Rivera spent nearly two decades in prison for a 1992 rape and murder of a Holly Staker, 11, of Waukegan, a crime he did not commit received a $20 million settlement on Friday in Chicago.
