WASHINGTON (AP) – 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.
The 64-year-old Gates, who now lives in Tennessee, has already received more than a million dollars from the federal government for its role in his conviction. The settlement with the city brings his total compensation to $18 million.
Peter Neufeld, a New York-based attorney for Gates, said in a telephone interview that Gates’ attorneys are “very, very happy for our client.”
“He’s thrilled that it’s over, and of course he’s thrilled that he’ll be able to live comfortably for the rest of his life,” Neufeld said.