$30m payout for wrongly convicted man

Craig Coley. Photo: Reuters
Craig Coley. Photo: Reuters
A wrongly convicted man will receive a $US21 million ($NZ30.6m) settlement from a California city after spending nearly four decades in prison for two murders he did not commit.

Craig Coley served 39 years for the 1978 Simi Valley slayings of Rhonda Wicht and her 4-year-old son Donald, but was released in 2017 when he was pardoned by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. He was 70 years old when he was finally set free.

The settlement is the largest payout from the state's Victim's Compensation Government Claim Board, and his time behind bars was the longest prison term overturned in California, according to a press release.

"While no amount of money can make up for what happened to Mr. Coley, settling this case is the right thing to do for Mr. Coley and our community," Simi Valley City Manager Eric Levitt said.

"The monetary cost of going to trial would be astronomical and it would be irresponsible for us to move forward in that direction."

The settlement was announced on Saturday (local time). Levitt said it "will mitigate the long and costly process of unnecessary litigation."

Coley was tried for the double-murder twice. A jury could not come to a decision after the first trial, but convicted him in 1980 after the second. It was DNA evidence that would eventually clear him.

The Vietnam veteran had dated Wicht before her murder. Coley told the Daily News last year that he believes she knew her killer.

"I have no doubt that this case is going to be solved, it's just matter of when," he said. "The new investigators are doing things thoroughly and completely. They have more technology now."

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