WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The largest wrongful conviction settlement in US history concluded in Lake County, Illinois where the plaintiff Juan Rivera will receive $20 million for being wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, the Chicago-based firm Loevy & Loevy Attorneys at Law said in a release.
“[The] $20 million settlement of Juan A. Rivera, Jr. v. Lake County, IL… sets a new US record for the settlement of an individual case of wrongful conviction,” the release, issued on Friday, stated. “Juan Rivera was imprisoned almost 20 years for a rape and murder that he did not commit.”
“DNA evidence later pointed to another suspect and the Illinois Appellate Court reversed his conviction, allowing him to walk free from prison on January 6, 2012,” the release said.
Rivera is represented by the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at the Northwestern University Law School as well as by Loevy & Loevy.
Loevy & Loevy is the largest civil rights law firm in the Midwestern United States, and has won more multi-million dollar verdicts than any other civil rights law firm in the country over the past ten years, the release said.
The Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center is a public interest law firm at Northwestern University Law School that advocates for human rights and social justice through litigation, according to the release.
