NYC to pay $7M to man wrongfully convicted in 1996 killing
New York City has agreed to pay $7 million to a man who spent 23 years behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit, Comptroller Brad Lander said Monday.
Grant Williams was exonerated last July in the 1996 shooting of Shdell Lewis outside a Staten Island public housing complex.
Williams, 51, had been paroled in 2019. After being cleared last year, he filed a notice of claim, a first step toward suing the city. The comptroller’s office has the authority to settle such claims without court action and occasionally does so, including in the 2014 police chokehold death of Eric Garner.