Chicago man wrongly imprisoned for murder wins $50 million jury award

CHICAGO (CBS/AP) -- A man who was wrongfully imprisoned for seven years was awarded $50 million from the City of Chicago on Monday.

In 2011 when he was just 18, Marcel Brown was convicted as an accomplice to a murder three years earlier.

As documented by the National Registry of Exonerations, the charges stemmed from a shooting on Aug. 30, 2008, at Amundsen Park on the city's West Side.

Paris Jackson, 19, was killed in the shooting. Police determined Brown's 15-year-old cousin was the one who fired the shots and said Brown was accountable because he drove his cousin to the park.

Karen Daniel of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law's Center on Wrongful Convictions said Brown was questioned by police for 34 hours until he made an untrue statement that was the basis of his conviction.

Daniel said in 2018 that the group's investigation determined Jackson was accidentally killed by his friends.

Brown was exonerated, and his conviction was overturned that year.

Brown sued Chicago Police, accusing investigators of crossing the line and forcing a confession.

At a news conference Monday, attorney Jon Loevy asked Brown how it felt to be 18 and pressed into the criminal justice system.

"I was just a kid. I felt like a slave," Brown said. "They put me in a den full of lions, and they didn't care or show no remorse."

Brown said he plans to use the money to take care of his family and enjoy his freedom.

The Chicago Department of Law said in a statement that it is "reviewing the verdict and assessing its legal options."