Stefon Morant's Wrongful Conviction Trial

0:00A trial kicks off Wednesday at 9 a.m. in Hartford, where Stefan Morant is suing New Haven and several ex-cofs for locking him up over two decades. On a wrongful double murder conviction from 1990, Morant claims officers twisted witness stories, planted evidence, and hid facts that pointed to real suspects, local drug dealers, in the killings of A.D.R., former Alderman and his partner. He got convicted in June 1994, did 21 years inside, then walked free in 2015, after a prosecutor admitted the star. Witness lied under cop pressure. Morant snagged a full pardon from Connecticut's Board of Pardons and Peroles in 2021, had his record wiped clean, and the state cut him A, checked for $5,800,000 on his innocence claim. His co-defendant, Scott Lewis, already settled with the city for $9,500,000 after his own release. This case shines a light on New Haven's police force back in the 80s through early 2000s, when more than a dozen folks got exonerated, nationwide for cop and prosecutor misconduct

1:03in the area. Activists and lawyers are pushing Connecticut for a full audit of old cases to check for more flaws, and Yale student journalists dug deep into. Suspect convictions through their holding me captive project. The city fights back, saying officers were trained right and any bad moves were rare outliers amid 15,000 cases handled by dozens of detectives. But last year, a judge shot down their bid to toss the suit, calling the evidence stacked against the department's so-called indifference to dirty tactics. Expect this showdown to run up to six weeks, with Morant chasing big compensatory and punitive payouts, potentially exposing more cracks in that era's. Badger work and pushing for real accountability. Today informed with Hartford News Today, AI-powered updates. I'm Corey, with the story.