Photo: ReutersA 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. "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." A jury could not come to a decision after the first trial, but convicted him in 1980 after the second.

Source: Otago Daily Times February 24, 2019 22:30 UTC