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Jury Finds Exonerated Black Man Was Framed By Cops, Awards Him Millions Another day, another “cops frame black man” story. Donald Gates was only 37 years old when he was convicted of raping and killing a 21-year-old Georgetown univerity student in 1981. Gates spent 27 long ass years in prison until DNA testing confirmed his innocence in 2009. Naturally, Gates slapped the city with a civil suit and now that suit has come to an end with the jury finding Gates was indeed framed by cops and deserves millions. How much? $16.65 million! Via ABC News The District of Columbia agreed Thursday to pay $16.65 million to a man who spent 27 years in prison for a rape and murder he didn’t commit. The amount is about $617,000 for every year Donald Eugene Gates spent in prison. Gates was freed in 2009 after DNA evidence cleared him in the 1981 rape and murder of 21-year-old Georgetown University student Catherine Schilling. A federal jury on Wednesday found that two city police officers fabricated and withheld evidence in the case, and city officials agreed to a settlement Thursday as the jury was getting ready to decide damages in the case. Gates said in a telephone interview Thursday that he was “elated” with the settlement. “Today, justice was served. Long-awaited justice was served,” Gates said. Gates said he’s been dealing with medical issues and hasn’t had a social life since he left prison, but he said he does go to church and that it was God who “walked with me through all those years” in prison and since then. Of the settlement, he said: “I’m going to put it to good use, that’s for sure.” Gates was already a millionaire after he received $1.4 million from the US government thanks to the federal law that grants wrongly imprisoned folks $50,000 for every year they were locked up. But now he’s rightfully rolling in the dough! ABC

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Exonerated Black Man Framed By Cops And Spent 27 Years In Prison Wins Millions In Civil Suit