Last year a jury awarded Alan Newton $18.5 million for the 22 years he spent in prison for a rape he didn't commit and yesterday a judge took it all away. In a 31-page decision Judge Shira Scheindlin argued that Newton didn't deserve the money because the city had not intentionally violated his civil rights, writing "It is not enough for Newton to have shown that the city's posttrial evidence management system is disorganized...As disturbing as such negligence may be, in the end, that is what it is: mere negligence."
In 1985 Newtwon was found guilty of rape, robbery and assault and was sentenced to 13 to 40 years in jail. Starting in 1994 he asked the city to find the rape kit from the case and test it, but police said they couldn't find it until 2005, when the Innocence Project got involved. He was freed in 2006 when the kit proved he was not the rapist in that case. Since then he has completed a degree at Medgar Evers College, gotten a job as a research associate at the Black Male Initiative of the City University of New York, and was planning on using the money from the case to, among other things, pay for law school.
"I'm totally shocked," Newton told the News after the decision came down. "The city's saying I'm not entitled to anything, and no one has to answer for what happened to me anymore. ... This is the last thing I expected." Newton's lawyer says he plans to appeal the decision. Meanwhile, a case against the state is still pending.
The City's counsel, Michael Cardozo, said he was pleased the city had been found not liable, calling the case "complicated and hard-fought."
