A woman who spent 35 years in jail for murder before being cleared by DNA evidence on a cigarette stub is to receive $3m (£2.5m) in compensation.

Cathy Woods, 68, is the longest-ever wrongfully imprisoned woman in US history, records show.

She was released from prison in 2015 when fresh evidence linked the 1976 murder of Reno college student Michelle Mitchell to suspected serial killer Rodney Halbower.

Speaking after an agreement was reached on the payout to Ms Woods, her lawyer Elizabeth Wang said: "Although no amount of money will compensate Ms Woods for what she endured, this will go at least some way toward providing care for her."

Ms Wang said her client will continue to seek additional damages from the city of Reno and former detectives she accuses of coercing a fabricated confession from her while she was a patient at a Louisiana mental hospital in 1979.


She said Ms Woods was psychotic at the time and never should have been interrogated by officers investigating the killing of 19-year-old Ms Mitchell.

Her initial conviction in 1980 was overturned by Nevada's Supreme Court, but she was found guilty again in 1984, and the high court upheld this verdict in 1988.

A judge quashed her conviction in 2014 after previously unavailable DNA technology linked a cigarette butt found at the crime scene to Halbower.

Image: DNA technology linked a crime-scene cigarette stub to suspected serial killer Rodney Halbower

The authorities believe Halbower raped and killed six women and girls, including Ms Mitchell in Reno in 1976.

But he was only charged with two killings and last year was sentenced to life in prison for the killings of 17-year-old Paula Baxter and 18-year-old Veronica Cascio.

Agreeing the settlement, the Washoe County Commission said in a statement it was confident there was no wrongdoing by any county staff but that the payment brought to an end costly legal action.

The county said: "The conviction and subsequent incarceration of Woods for murder is a tragic situation that Washoe County hopes is never repeated.

"While money can rarely compensate an individual for loss of freedom, Washoe County sincerely hopes that this monetary settlement will be utilised for the best possible care of Woods."

The federal lawsuit filed by Ms Woods in 2016 said she was a poorly educated woman with severe mental illness who was "intentionally framed" by the authorities.

She had been working as a bartender in Reno when Ms Mitchell was killed.

She later moved to Louisiana where her mother committed her to the psychiatric hospital and she told a counsellor about "a girl named Michelle being murdered in Reno".

Maizie Pusich, a public defence lawyer in Washoe County said back in 2014 that Ms Woods did not remember confessing in the hospital.

Speaking at the time, Ms Pusich said: "I'm told it was a product of wanting to get a private room. She was being told she wasn't sufficiently dangerous to qualify, and within a short period she was claiming she had killed a woman in Reno."