man gets $3.5 million for wrongful imprisonment

This is crazy. In one of the largest wrongful-conviction payouts in state history, New York City has agreed to pay $3.5 million to Shih-Wei Su of Queens, who was imprisoned for 12 years after being found guilty of attempted murder: City to Pay $3.5 Million to Wrongfully Imprisoned Queens Man.

Su was convicted by a jury in 1992 after Queens prosecutors knowingly presented false testimony from the star witness, according to a ruling in 2003 by the United States Court of Appeals, which overturned the conviction and condemned the Queens district attorney's office.

Prosecutors had argued at trial that Su ordered fellow members of a youth gang, the White Tigers, to shoot a member of a rival gang, the Green Dragons, in a Bayside pool hall in 1991. He was convicted with the help of testimony from a key witness who agreed to testify against him after being promised by prosecutors leniency regarding his own crimes. On the stand, the witness denied having made such a deal.

Su was sentenced to 16 to 50 years in prison. He was released in 2003 after a federal appeals court ruled that the lead prosecutor in the case, Linda Rosero, elicited false testimony from the witness and misled jury members, telling them there was "technically no agreement" regarding the witness's testimony.

So now the city's paying out. I can think of few things worse than being wrongfully convicted for murder, then spending twelve years in prison for it. What a nightmare. I know you can't really put a dollar amount on that kind of suffering... but $3.5 million doesn't hurt.