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Mark Denny is celebrating his bittersweet victory after he was released from prison nearly 30 years after he was wrongly convicted of rape and robbery.
—Black father shot dead by white man after white supremacist rant—
The NYC man entered into a settlement that was approved by the Comptroller Scott Stringer who agreed to pay out $9.75 million settlement to stave off a $50 lawsuit Denny was aiming to file against the city and the NYPD.
Denny claimed he was framed by cops for a crime he didn’t commit, according to records obtained by The NY Post through the Freedom of Information Law.
On May 24, Denny gave up his rights to sue or hold the city liable in exchange for the settlement.
“It was in the best interest of the city to settle pre-litigation,” Stringer spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays told the outlet.
Denny was convicted of robbing a Brooklyn Burger King, along with three others back in 1987 when he was 17. He was also accused of raping an 18-year-old female employee. Denny maintained his innocence but was convicted and sentenced up to 57 years in prison in 1989.
The Innocence Project, which helped the now exonerated Central Park Five prove their own innocence, took up Denny’s case after he argued he was “targeted and framed” by dozens of NYPD detectives.
The Kings County district attorney’s Conviction Review Unit found that Denny wasn’t on the scene that night. He was freed December 2017.
—Black father and son chased by white man on horse draped in confederate flag and carrying a rope—