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A Black man who has been in prison for almost three decades for a murder he didn’t commit was awarded $27 million a million for every year he was in prison according to NPR.

Mark Schand was convicted in 1987 of club shooting in Springfield, Mass, that killed a woman bystander. Six years ago a judge considered new evidence discovered the innocence organization Centurion Ministries subsequently let him go. Schand sued the city of Springfield and four police officers for violating his civil rights in 2015. A judge dismissed the suit against the city and the case is awaiting appeal. However, the claim against the officers who are all retired Elmer McMahon, Leonard Scammon’s, Raymond Muise and Michael Reid.

During the trial, Schand’s legal team argued that officers used “unduly suggestive” techniques when identifying their client as a suspect. The jury decided that was worth $1 million for every year spent Schand spent in prison, an outcome even his lawyer didn’t predict.

“What are 27 years of a person’s life worth? That is a very interesting philosophical question,” Heather McDevitt one of Schand’s attorneys said. “There are experiences that can never be recreated. There is the pain and suffering and subjection to violence and isolation and loneliness.” Schand said the verdict is less about the money and more about clearing his name. Schand said he hasn’t received any help from the government after he was released from prison and had to fight the state’s attorney general’s office for a few hundred thousand dollars in statutory compensation and still no one has apologized to him. “After all this time, this is the first time there was some acknowledgement that someone [had] done something in my wrongful conviction, someone was responsible for it,” he said. “And, you know, that was almost better than the monetary damages.” After being released from prison Schand had a series of manual labor jobs but now runs his own smoothie business in New Britain, Conn.

“I’m 55 years old. It’s all downhill from here for me,” he told NPR. with a wry laugh. “If I ever get [the money], I’m just going to be comforted by the fact that I know maybe my kids will be all right and they won’t have to struggle as much as I did — before I was incarcerated and since I’ve been home.”

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