State Will Pay $1 Million To 'Clearly Innocent' Man Imprisoned For 37 Years
BOSTON (CBS) -- Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's office announced Wednesday that the state has reached a $1 million settlement with Fred Clay, who spent 37 years in prison for a murder he says he didn't commit.
"After a careful examination of the circumstances of this case and determining that Mr. Clay was clearly innocent, we are pleased to have reached a settlement that will compensate him $1 million, the maximum allowed under state law. We wish Mr. Clay the very best as he moves forward," a spokeswoman for Healey's office said in a statement.
The settlement also allows Clay to receive free tuition at any state university or community college.
Clay was convicted of first-degree murder in 1981 for the 1979 shooting death of 28-year-old cab driver Jeffrey Boyajian in Roslindale. Clay was 16 years old at the time of the murder.
The Suffolk County District Attorney's office under former DA Dan Conley took another look at the case, determined Clay did not receive a fair trial and vacated the conviction. Conley conceded that techniques used with witnesses in the 1981 trial were completely unjust and, therefore, he should not have been in prison all this time.
He left a Boston courtroom in August 2017 as a free man to tears and hugs from friends.
