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He was found innocent, 40 years late
Los Angeles Times
|September 25, 2025
Maurice Hastings gets $25-million wrongful conviction settlement from Inglewood.
MAURICE HASTINGS smiles at a 2022 hearing, when evidence exonerated him.
J. EMILIO FLORES Cal State L.A.
More than 40 years after he was arrested for a murder he didn't commit, a Southern California man accepted a $25-million wrongful conviction settlement offered by the city of Inglewood on Monday.
Maurice Hastings, 70, spent 38 years in prison before being found factually innocent by a California Superior Court in 2023. He was in the process of suing two Inglewood police detectives and the estate of an L.A. County district attorney's employee before the city settled.
The law firm representing Hastings — Neufeld, Scheck, Brustin, Hoffman & Freudenberger — said the settlement was the largest in state history for a wrongful conviction. That could not be independently verified.
“No amount of money could ever restore the 38 years of my life that were stolen from me,” Hastings said in a statement. “But this settlement is a welcome end to a very long road, and I look forward to moving on with my life.”
This story is from the September 25, 2025 edition of Los Angeles Times.
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