California Man Receives $25 Million For Wrongful Conviction After Spending Nearly Four Decades In Jail

A California man who spent 38 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit has been awarded $25 million, the largest wrongful conviction settlement in the state’s history.

Court documents show the settlement was finalized in August.

Maurice Hastings, now 72, was convicted in 1983 of murdering Roberta Wydermyer, who died from a single gunshot wound.

He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The lawsuit alleged that two Inglewood police officers and an investigator with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office framed Hastings.

In a statement, Hastings said no amount of money could ever restore the 38 years stolen from him. Still, he called the settlement “a good start on a very long road” and said he looks forward to rebuilding his life.

Attorneys representing the defendants, along with a spokesperson for the City of Inglewood, has not responded to any requests for comments.

Hastings has always maintained his innocence throughout his imprisonment. After decades of legal battles, he has finally received justice through the settlement.

At the time of the murder, the coroner performed a sexual assault examination during the victim’s autopsy, collecting bodily fluids from the attacker.

In 2000, Hastings requested DNA testing on that evidence, but the District Attorney’s Office denied his request.

More than two decades later, in 2021, Hastings submitted a claim of innocence to the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit.

DNA testing soon confirmed that the fluids collected from the victim did not belong to him.

In 2022, when Hastings was 69, his conviction was formally vacated at the joint request of his attorneys and prosecutors.

A year later, a judge officially declared that Hastings was innocent and did not commit the crime.

The DNA profile from the crime scene was entered into a state database and matched to a man already convicted of another violent crime – an armed kidnapping and sexual assault, during which the female victim was forced into the trunk of a car.

The circumstances of that crime were chillingly similar to the murder of Roberta Wydermyer.

The real perpetrator in Wydermyer’s murder was eventually identified as Kenneth Packnett, who had been arrested only weeks after the 1983 crime.

During his arrest, law enforcement found a coin purse and jewelry that matched those belonging to Wydermyer when she was killed.

However, Packnett was not a person of interest in Wydermyder’s murder at the time.

Packnett later died in prison in 2020, while serving a separate sentence.

Hastings now resides in Southern California, where he is an active member of the local church.