Man wrongfully convicted in 2008 murder awarded $50M in lawsuit against city, CPD

CHICAGO — A man who spent nearly a decade in prison after he was wrongfully convicted in a 2008 murder was awarded $50 million by a federal jury on Monday.

The multi-million dollar verdict was the result of a civil suit against the city, the Chicago Police Department and the prosecutor for their alleged misconduct that led to Marcel Brown’s arrest and false conviction.

Brown was arrested in 2008 at the age of 18 for the murder of Paris Jackson, who was fatally shot in Amundsen Park on Aug. 30 of that same year.

Brown had been tied to the case after officers interviewed Marisol Ocampo, a person who had been at the park the night before.

The lawsuit stated that Ocampo had falsely told officers that Brown had been driving a car when his cousin, Renard Branch, opened fire in the direction of a group of young men at the park.

Branch and another person were involved in a separate shooting in the area, but the lawsuit said he and Brown were not responsible for Jackson’s death.

According to the lawsuit, following Brown’s arrest on Sept. 3, 2008, officers took him to detective headquarters where he was subject to a 34-hour interrogation in a windowless room.

The lawsuit said during the interrogation, officers denied Brown’s repeated requests to call his mother, violating his right to make a “reasonable number of phone calls.”

The lawsuit also alleged that detectives then coerced false and inculpatory statements from Brown during the course of their investigation, in an effort to close the case “without delay and with minimal effort.”

The lawsuit further alleged that the misconduct practiced by the detectives to close serious crimes was tolerated and encouraged, and often targeted young African-American men and boys.

Brown was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to 35 years in prison. He spent seven years in prison before he was exonerated and certified innocent in 2018.

Following his release, Brown filed the lawsuit in 2019, seeking damages for the emotional pain and suffering of his incarceration and having to rebuild his life.

Alongside the $50 million, Brown was also awarded $50,000 in punitive damages.

Brown spoke at a press conference on Monday afternoon, thanking the jury and his attorneys who fought for him.

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