Baltimore to pay $48 million to 3 men wrongly imprisoned for decades in ‘Georgetown jacket’ killing

By JAMES POLLARD
Associated Press/Report for America

Three men who each spent 36 years in prison for a high-profile killing they did not commit are going to get $48 million from Baltimore. It’s the largest settlement in Maryland history. The Baltimore Board of Estimates’ approval of the payout brings an end to a federal lawsuit brought by Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart and Ransom Watkins. The “Harlem Park Three” were exonerated in 2019 for the 1983 slaying of a 14-year-old middle schooler accosted for his Georgetown jacket. They allege that officials coerced witnesses and withheld evidence pointing to a different suspect. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott says the settlement is part of the price necessary “to right the many wrongs of this terrible history.”