Getting accused of something you didn’t do is bad enough. Yet for these people, the story didn’t stop there. They spent years behind bars, waiting to be cleared. And once the truth came out, they walked out with serious compensation. Here are 15 people whose long legal journeys ended with multimillion-dollar payouts for the time and dignity they lost.
Marcel Brown
Marcel Brown endured nearly 10 years locked up for something he didn’t do. In 2024, a Chicago jury awarded him $50 million after deciding officials used improper tactics to pressure him into a false statement. His attorneys revealed he had been in an interview room for over 30 hours.
Craig Coley
Police called Craig Coley a killer after his girlfriend and her young son were found dead in 1978. He always maintained he was innocent. For nearly four decades, he waited for someone to believe him. New DNA tests finally did what years of appeals couldn’t—they pointed to someone else entirely. Coley walked free in 2017, and the state cut him a $21 million check for all those stolen years.
Henry McCollum and Leon Brown
These half-brothers spent decades confined after being forced into confessions as teens. DNA results finally cleared them in 2014; a federal jury awarded them $75 million. Their story had once been used to support harsh sentencing laws and show how the system can go painfully wrong.
The Central Park Five
New York in the late ’80s was already tense. Then came the case that changed everything. Five teens were blamed for a conflict in Central Park. Years later, another man confessed, and the city paid the now-grown men $41 million. Their story was retold in the miniseries When They See Us.
Lamonte McIntyre
At just 17, Lamonte McIntyre was sent away for a double case he had no connection to. He spent 23 years confined before being exonerated in 2017. Later, the state of Kansas passed a bill to compensate wrongfully accused people, and McIntyre received $1.55 million plus tuition assistance and health care benefits.
Anthony Graves
Texas sent Anthony Graves to death row on the word of a single witness without any physical evidence or a solid case. He spent 18 years in prison before his name was cleared in 2010. The state later paid $1.4 million for the years he lost. Now he spends his time fighting for others who the system has wronged.
Ricky Jackson
Cleveland police leaned on a boy’s shaky story to put Ricky Jackson behind bars. Decades later, that same witness returned as a grown man and told the truth: he’d lied. Jackson got his first taste of freedom after 39 years locked up, longer than anyone else exonerated in U.S. history. Once home, he was awarded over $1 million by the state and received an additional $2.6 million from a federal lawsuit against the city.
Suzanne Johnson
Running a daycare turned into a nightmare when a child lost their life in Suzanne Johnson’s care in 1989. She said it was an accident, but prosecutors blamed shaken baby syndrome. She served 21 years, until advances in forensic science helped clear her. After being granted clemency, she received $1.3 million in compensation.
Juan Rivera
Rivera’s wrongful conviction became a case study in false confessions. He went through the legal wringer three times for the same case. Even DNA evidence didn’t stop the trials. Finally cleared after 20 years, he received a $20 million settlement—the largest in Illinois at the time.
Kimberly Long
Kimberly Long found her partner unresponsive in 2003 and ended up on trial. Her first jury couldn’t agree, but the second found her guilty. Years later, advances in timing analysis proved she couldn’t have been present during the event. She was released and received around $900,000 from the state of California.
Ronald Cotton
Misidentified in a photo lineup, Ronald Cotton spent over 10 years incarcerated before DNA evidence proved someone else was responsible. He later co-authored the book Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, turning his story into a national discussion on memory and forgiveness. North Carolina compensated him with $110,000.
Duke Lacrosse Players
In 2006, members of Duke’s lacrosse team faced serious allegations that led to public outcry and media attention. As the case unraveled, the prosecutor was removed, and charges were dropped. The university later reached confidential financial settlements, which were reported to be in the millions.
Marvin Anderson
Marvin Anderson was 18 and on his way to a promising future when a misidentification led to a years-long fight to prove he wasn’t involved. DNA eventually cleared him, and Virginia awarded him $1.1 million. Anderson became a firefighter and helped launch the Innocence Project’s push for reforms in eyewitness identification procedures.
Darryl Hunt
Darryl Hunt spent 19 years behind bars for the misfortune of a newspaper copy editor before DNA cleared him in 2004. North Carolina awarded him $2 million. Hunt used the settlement to start the Darryl Hunt Project for Freedom and Justice. His story was featured in the documentary The Trials of Darryl Hunt.
Kirk Bloodsworth
Bloodsworth became the first American to be cleared through DNA testing after receiving a capital sentence in a case involving a young child. Advanced testing cleared his name in 1993, and Maryland awarded him $300,000. His case led to the creation of a federal program to fund DNA testing for inmates.