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

BALTIMORE - Baltimore's spending board will be asked next week to approve a $48 million settlement in the wrongful conviction from a 40-year-old homicide case.

It would be the largest payout in Baltimore's history.

Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart and Ransom Watkins, who were known as the "Harlem Park Three," were exonerated back in 2019 after they spent 36 years in prison.

They had been convicted of the murder of a teenager in 1983 when they were 16 years old. 

They were accused of the brutal killing of Dewitt Duckett, a 14-year-old ninth-grader who was robbed of his Georgetown Starter jacket and was shot on November 18, 1983, while walking in the hallways of Harlem Park Middle School. 

They were sentenced to life in prison, but on November 25, 2019, they were released.

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

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.

Their release was a victory thanks to the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office and the Innocence Project.

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