A New York man who was falsely convicted of a 1987 Cleveland murder and sentenced to more than 35 years in prison was given a $1.1 million payout by a state commission on Monday.
Dwayne Brooks, 58, was freed from prison last year after a Cuyahoga County judge ruled that police and prosecutors had concealed witness statements and police reports from Brooks’ legal team, in support of their client’s claim that Brooks was not involved in the August 1987 ambush death of Clinton Arnold, 35, at Luke Easter Park.
At the time, Brooks lived in Hempstead, New York, but he insisted he wasn’t even in Ohio when Arnold was slain.
However, the evidence of two co-defendants who cooperated with prosecutors to identify Brooks as Arnold’s killer in exchange for entering a guilty plea to lesser counts was a major factor in Brooks’ conviction and life sentence.
Without discussion or argument, the Ohio Controlling Board on Monday authorized the payment of $1,103,475.92 to Brooks in accordance with a preliminary judgment.
That amounts to roughly 50% of what he owes him under state law, which presently compensates those who were unfairly imprisoned for each year they spent behind bars with $64,186.92.
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The Ohio Court of Claims authorized the preliminary judgment amount late last month, and it amounts to around $88 for each of the 12,519 days that Brooks was wrongly incarcerated. The state’s general revenue fund will be used to pay for the expenditure.
In addition to those damages, Brooks might possibly receive reimbursement for his legal costs and for the money he would have made if he hadn’t been imprisoned. A court or a settlement reached through legal means will decide how much money he receives in the end.
The Controlling Board vote on Monday takes place barely three weeks after the board approved a $131,000 payout to Canton resident Aaron Culbertson, who falsely served more than four years in prison for a 2018 robbery in which fresh evidence revealed he was not involved.
In the previous three years, members of the Controlling Board have also authorized a number of further payments for unjust imprisonment, including:
- $3 million in December went to the estate of Isaiah Andrews of Cuyahoga County, who was convicted of killing his wife and served more than 45 years in prison
- $1 million went to Joe D’Ambrosio, an ex-death row inmate from North Royalton, who was released from prison in 2010 due to prosecutorial misconduct
- $1.8 million went to Anthony Lemons of Cleveland, who was exonerated of murder charges in 2014 after serving 18 years in prison.
