Three men were cleared of
murder after a witness recanted their
evidence.
A man freed last year after spending 39 years in
jail for a murder he did not commit will receive
around $1m from Ohio for his wrongful
imprisonment.
Ricky Jackson is the longest-held US prisoner to
be cleared of a crime.
"Wow, wow, wow, that's fantastic, man," he
said, upon learning of the payment from a
journalist.
"I don't even know what to say. This is going
to mean so much."
Mr Jackson, 58, was one of three men sent to
death row in 1975 after being convicted of
aggravated murder in the slaying of a
businessman outside a corner store in Cleveland.
Prosecutors at the time relied on the testimony
of a 13-year-old boy to convict Mr Jackson and
two brothers who were his best friends, Wiley
Bridgeman and Ronnie Bridgeman.
The boy, Eddie Vernon, recanted his testimony
years later, and told authorities he had never
actually witnessed the crime. There was no
other evidence linking Mr Jackson to the killing.
Based on the recantation and corroborating
testimony that Vernon lied in 1975, a judge
dismissed the charges against the three men in
November.
The Court of Claims ordered the state of Ohio to
pay Mr Jackson $1,008,055 for the nearly 39
years he spent in state prison.
Wiley Bridgeman and Ronnie Bridgeman, who
now goes by the name of Kwame Ajamu, have
not received any compensation yet.