Baltimore spending board approves $48 million settlement for wrongful conviction of 'Harlem Park Three'

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore's spending board approved a $48 million settlement in the wrongful conviction of three men in a 40-year-old homicide case.

The Baltimore City Board of Estimates approved the settlement unanimously Wednesday morning, making it the largest payout in Baltimore's history.

Before approving the settlement, BOE chair and City Council President Nick Mosby expressed concern more settlements could be coming, potentially putting the city in financial jeopardy.

"Today our city paid a moral, ethical, and financial debt left on us by a previous generation and decades of injustice," Mosby said in a statement. "First and foremost, our hearts are with Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart, Ransom Watkins and their families. Nothing in this world can make up for the mental and emotional trauma that has been put on these innocent men and their families. No amount of compensation can right the wrongs of 36 years of turmoil and the residual effects on these men, their families, and communities."  

The trio was wrongfully convicted in 1983, when they were 16 years old, of murdering their childhood friend Dewitt Duckett in the hallway of Harlem Park Middle School. It was a case that garnered national attention in which they were portrayed as calculating, savage killers.

It's a story that attorneys say was created by detectives, who they claim knowingly arrested the wrong suspects. And, according to a lawsuit, hid evidence and testimony that would have exonerated all three.

The three were sentenced to life in prison but were exonerated in 2019 after spending 36 years in prison.

The "Harlem Park Three" argued detectives used fabricated evidence to get a conviction.

"We told them the truth from the beginning because we had nothing to worry about," said Chestnut in an exclusive interview with WJZ's Vic Carter after their release. "We didn't do anything."

During that interview, the three men also described everything they have lost because of their time incarcerated.

"The whole time I was in prison, my father died, grandfather died, grandmother died, sister died, brother died -- I lost everything," Watkins said at the time. "The family I came home to, there's no connection, as much as I want that connection, I can't find that with them. The state did that, they did that to us."

A lawsuit against police claimed that officers coerced young witnesses to lie and that the detectives fabricated a narrative that pinned the crime on the innocent teens.

The lawsuit also said they ignored eyewitness accounts and physical evidence pointing to a different suspect.

At the meeting, Mosby asked Justin Conroy, Baltimore Police Department's chief legal counsel, if there are more settlements in the pipeline that could further cost the city.

Conroy said there are a number of cases in litigation now, but added more could pop up.

"There may be more cases, but because we have not seen any and because we've made so many reforms, it is tough to say there's going to be more. There's always going to be examination of old cases," Conroy said.

Mosby also made a point to say officers should be held more accountable in cases of misconduct, namely looking at paying settlements with pensions, as opposed to city funds.

"The individual responsible should take some sort of ownership," he said during the meeting. "It's problematic and we should look into it."

Conroy clarified at the meeting in cases where police officers are found guilty in misconduct, their pension is not affected.

The settlement will be paid through a risk management fund the city already makes yearly payments to. 

WJZ's Vic Carter sat down with them for an exclusive interview after their release.   

"We should not have one individual who did not commit a crime still sitting in jail," Mosby said in a statement. "This system and the recurring list of wrongful convictions has robbed countless young Black men of Baltimore City of their lives and liberties as fathers, brothers, grandfathers, and members of society. These three men were wrongfully sent to jail as teenagers, spent decades institutionalized, and now re-enter the free world and are expected to restart their lives. The toll on their physical and mental health is unimaginable. Our city should do everything in its power to provide the mental and emotional support these men, and anyone in their situations deserve."

Mosby said city council will be looking at pension reform with police soon.