North Carolina City to Pay $6M to Man Wrongfully Incarcerated for 17 Years

The city of Greensboro, N.C., will pay $6 million to a man imprisoned for 17 years for a murder he didn’t commit.

The News & Record of Greensboro reports the city agreed Oct. 21 to pay the money to 66-year-old LaMonte Armstrong to end the federal civil lawsuit he had filed.

Armstrong was had been convicted in 1995 of the murder of North Carolina A&T State University professor Ernestine Compton in her home in July 1988. He was released from prison in 2012.

Armstrong’s lawsuit said police and prosecutors continued with the flawed case against him even after their key witness tried to retract his testimony against Armstrong, saying detectives threatened him if he didn’t testify.

Gov. Pat McCrory issued a pardon of innocence in 2013 to Armstrong, who received $750,000.