9:40am | A man who served 24 years in prison before two federal judges ruled that he was wrongly convicted will receive a nearly $8 million settlement from the City of Long Beach, according to the Associated Press [AP]. The city agreed to the settlement on Wednesday.
Testimony from a jailhouse informant led to the 1979 murder conviction of Thomas Goldstein, who was freed in 2004 after the judges and a federal appeals panel ruled in his favor. Goldstein had sued L.A. County Prosecutors for using testimony from jailed informants without checking their stories.
Goldstein was living in Long Beach in 1979 when John McGinest was killed by a shotgun blast in an alley near Goldstein’s home. After some witnesses described a black shooter and some described a white shooter, Goldstein was jailed for the crime and shared a cell with heroin addict Edward Fink. He would later testify that Goldstein confessed to the crime during their time together, and prosecutors based their case on Fink’s testimony despite well-known credibility issues. Prosecutors also made a deal with Fink to ease his sentence for cooperating in the Goldstein case, but they did not tell the defense. On those grounds, a judge oveturned Goldstein’s conviction.
Not everyone agrees with the ruling. From the AP:
Long Beach Deputy Attorney Monte Machit says despite Wednesday’s settlement, city officials deny that Goldstein was wrongfully arrested or that his constitutional rights were violated.
Machit told the L.A. Times [LAT] that the city agreed to the settlement because it would have been more expensive to fight the case in court, and a financially-strapped Long Beach couldn’t afford it.