The city of Chicago on Thursday announced a roughly $90 million “global settlement” to resolve 176 lawsuits tied to disgraced former Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts, who ran a corrupt public housing unit and went to federal prison for shaking down an FBI informant.

The plaintiffs whose cases are being settled have spent a collective total of more than 180 years in jail and prison.

They have long maintained that they were wrongfully convicted based on bogus evidence. All of their convictions have been vacated, and many of the plaintiffs have been granted certificates of innocence.

Mary B. Richardson, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s City Hall corporation counsel, planned to discuss the settlement at a news conference Thursday.

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