The family of a man whose murder by arson conviction was overturned will be paid $300,000 after the Metro Nashville Council approved a settlement.

Claude Francis Garrett spent decades in prison in the 1992 death of his girlfriend, Lorrie Lee Lance, before a judge dismissed all charges against him in May 2022. Just five months after his release, Garrett died in his sleep.

The settlement was approved June 3, more than a year after Garrett’s daughter Deana Watson filed suit against the United States, Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent James Cooper, two Nashville Fire Department firefighters, an NFD investigator, a Metro Nashville Police Department supervisor and two MNPD detectives.

“Due to the time since the original events, including the retirement of these individuals

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