Boston will pay $3.2 million to settle a wrongful conviction suit filed by Neil Miller, who served 10 years in prison for raping a college student before DNA tests proved that another man committed the crime, the Boston Globe reports. It is believed to be the largest settlement Boston has paid in a wrongful conviction case. Miller, 39, had been convicted of breaking into the woman’s apartment in 1989, and raping her while holding a screwdriver to her neck after the woman identified him in a police lineup. He was freed in 2000 after tests requested by the New York-based Innocence Project proved that his DNA didn’t match that found in semen on the victim’s body and bed.
Miller’s attorneys alleged that the senior criminologist in the city’s lab gave false testimony about blood evidence to increase the likelihood that Miller would be convicted. The lawyers called on Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole to review every case that the now retired police criminologist, David L. Brody, testified in. to make sure other innocent people were not convicted by his statements. City officials denied any wrongdoing by police. ”The amount of the settlement speaks to the fact that an innocent man served almost 10 1/2 years in prison,” William Sinnott, Boston’s corporation counsel, said ”There is certainly no admission of misconduct.”
Link: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/03/10/city_to_pay_32m_in_wrongful_conviction_suit/