EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio – Three men, who spent nearly two decades in prison, will now each get $5 million.
A jury hearing a federal lawsuit came back with that award Thursday afternoon for a group known as the East Cleveland 3.
Atty. Brett Murner, who represents Eugene Johnson, says the jurors found that former East Cleveland officers violated the civil rights of the three men. The civil trial was held this week in federal court.
Derrick Wheatt, Johnson and Laurese Glover spent about 19 years in prison until their release. That’s when Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo ruled the three deserved a new trial based on new evidence that was introduced.
An 8th District Court of Appeals also ruled the three East Cleveland men deserved a new trial on their murder conviction in 1996.
Glover, Johnson and Wheatt were accused in the February 1995 murder of Clifton Hudson. The three were all under 18 at the time.
