HICKORY, N.C. — The city of Hickory has agreed to pay a man $3.5 million after he spent 24 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.
Willie Grimes was exonerated in 2012 after the state's innocence commission found that fingerprints from the case didn't match his.
According to Channel 9's partners at the Hickory Record, Hickory City Council voted unanimously during its special meeting to approve a settlement agreement.
The city must pay $2,250,650, while the city’s insurance carrier will be covering the rest: $999,350.
Grimes, 69, who was arrested and placed under investigation by the Hickory Police Department, filed the lawsuit against the city and several people in Catawba County in October 2014.
Grimes was charged with first degree rape on Oct. 27, 1987. The arrest report indicated a 69-year-old woman was allegedly raped in her southwest Hickory apartment three nights before earlier.
In July 1988, Grimes was found guilty of two counts of first-degree rape and nine more years on one count of second-degree kidnapping, and was given a life sentence in prison.
Throughout his prison sentence, Grimes always maintained his innocence, even refusing to participate in prison programs that could have reduced his sentence because he would have had to admit guilt.
An analyst testified before the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission in April 2012 that the fingerprints on evidence at the scene matched a different person.
The commission raised this concern to the attention of a three-judge panel for review, which voted unanimously to find Grimes innocent of the charges against him.
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