The city of Inglewood has agreed to pay a record $25 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for over 38 years for a 1983 robbery-homicide and sexual assault he did not commit, it was announced Tuesday.
Maurice Hastings, now 72, was set free in October 2022 after new DNA test results pointed conclusively to another suspect.
No physical evidence linked Hastings to the crimes for which he was arrested and convicted, and numerous alibi witnesses attested to his whereabouts during the crimes. Prosecutors sought to impose the death penalty following Hastings’ guilty verdict, but the jury instead sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Biological evidence collected from the victim as part of a sexual assault kit had be