After spending 38 years in a California prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Maurice Hastings has been awarded a $25 million settlement. This is the largest wrongful conviction settlement in state history, according to his lawyers.
The 72-year-old was convicted and sentenced to life without parole in connection with the 1983 sexual assault and murder of Roberta Wydermyer, who died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
The settlement was finalized in August, with court documents being made public only recently.
Hastings was allegedly framed by two Inglewood Police Department officers and a Los Angeles District Attorney investigator, according to the lawsuit.
“No amount of money could ever restore the 38 years of my life that were stolen from me,” Hastings said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. “But this settlement is a welcome end to a very long road, and I look forward to moving on with my life.”
After a long legal battle, Hastings, who always said he was innocent, has finally settled the case. However, other details of the settlement are still unknown.
Back in 2000, Hastings requested DNA testing on some bodily fluids from the victim’s autopsy (which the coroner had already collected), but the district attorney’s office denied the request. Fast forward to 2021, after Hastings submitted a claim of innocence to the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit, DNA tests revealed the semen wasn’t his. Consequently, in 2022, at the age of 69, Hastings’ conviction was vacated after both the prosecutors and his legal team requested for it.
The DNA profile was put into a state database and later connected to Kenneth Packnett, who was already convicted of a different crime. Packnett was serving time for armed kidnapping and forced copulation, which sounded a lot like the Wydermyer murder.
Less than three weeks after the 1983 murder, Packnett was caught for a completely different car theft. When police arrested him, they found Wydermyer’s jewelry and coin purse, but they didn’t investigate him for her murder back then.
Packnett passed away in prison in 2020 while serving another sentence.
A California judge officially declared Hastings “factually innocent” in 2023, totally clearing him of the crime. His lawyers said Hastings is now living in Southern California and is actively involved with his church.
Nick Brustin, Hastings’s attorney, issued a warning: “Police departments throughout California and across the country should take notice that there is a steep price to pay for allowing such egregious misconduct on their watch.”
