Exonerated Ohio man wins civil rights suit, $13.2M

DNA frees man after 13 years in prison

3/9/2013

CINCINNATI — An Ohio man who spent 13 years in prison for a murder that DNA testing later proved he didn't commit was crying as a federal jury found that two police detectives violated his civil rights by coercing and falsifying testimony and withholding evidence that pointed to his innocence.

The jury's verdict Friday included awarding $13.2 million to David Ayers of Cleveland for his pain and suffering.

The 56-year-old Ayers was released from prison in September 2011 after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati reversed his conviction and the state decided not to seek another trial.

He had been found guilty in the 1999 killing of 76-year-old Dorothy Brown, who was found in her Cleveland apartment bludgeoned to death and naked from the waist down.