According to the Los Angeles Times, Maurice Hastings, who was wrongfully convicted, accepted a $25-million settlement from the city of Inglewood. Hastings had spent 38 years in prison before being found factually innocent by a California Superior Court in 2023. The settlement was reported to be the largest in state history for a wrongful conviction.
Hastings was released after his conviction was vacated by an L.A. County judge based on DNA evidence, and he was later found “factually innocent”. Efforts for his exoneration were supported by the Los Angeles Innocence Project and the California Forensic Science Institute at Cal State LA. Biological evidence from the victim, Roberta Wydermyer, had been kept but not tested despite requests from Hastings since 2000. The evidence was tested in June 2022, leading to Hastings’ release in October of that year. DNA evidence implicated Kenneth Packnett, who died in 2020.
