Massachusetts man jailed for 27 years for murder he did not commit awarded $1 million for each year he was in prison
SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS: On Friday, October 4, a federal jury awarded $27 million to a man who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.
Mark Schand, 55, of Hartford, Massachusetts was wrongfully jailed for the 1986 shooting death of Victoria Seymour, without the possibility of parole. After spending 27 years behind bars, the court awarded him $1 million for every year he was in prison.
"After all this time, this is the first time there was some acknowledgment that someone [had] done something in my wrongful conviction, someone was responsible for it," Schand told NPR after the jury's verdict was announced. "And, you know, that was almost better than the monetary damages."
The victim had died after she was hit by a stray bullet on September 2, 1986, as a result of a drug deal gone bad between drug dealers Charles 'Heavy' Stokes, his brother David and Anthony Cooke and Michael Hosten in Springfield.
One of the witnesses in the case initially said he was "50 percent" sure Schand was the gunman, picking his photo out of a lineup of snaps provided by the Hartford police to the Springfield detectives, of people proven to demonstrate troublesome behavior.
Schand became the lead suspect in the case after the Stokes brothers later identified him as the shooter and even testified during the trial.
Three years later, Heavy Stokes recanted his testimony. Schand was already behind the bars by then.
Twenty-three after his conviction, Centurion Ministries—a non-profit that takes up cases of people believed to be wrongly convicted for crimes—turned its attention to Schand's case.
Apart from discovering new witnesses to the incident and unearthing false testimony, the organization also found professional misconduct committed by retired Springfield Police officers Elmer McMahon, Leonard Scammons, Raymond Muise and Michael Reid in Schand's case.
One of the new witnesses vouched for Schand being 30 miles away from the crime scene when the shooting took place, hence providing him with an alibi. On October 4, 2013, Schand's release from prison was ordered by the judge and, 12 days later, charges against him were dropped.
In exchange for officials never having to apologize or admit they wrongly prosecuted him, the state initially agreed to pay Schand $450,000. In 2015, Schand sued the city of Springfield.