Conviction vacated; man gets $8 million from Tulsa

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – The city of Tulsa will pay $8 million to settle a lawsuit by a man who was wrongly convicted of robbery and burglary and served 16 years in prison.

The Tulsa World reports that city councilors on Thursday agreed to the amount to be paid to Sedrick Courtney after it was earlier approved by Mayor Dewey Bartlett.

Courtney was convicted of robbing a Tulsa woman in February 1996 and was sentenced to 60 years in prison. He was paroled in 2011 and new DNA evidence later ruled him out as one of the woman’s assailants.

Courtney sued the city in 2014, alleging authorities used manufactured evidence to convict him and obstructed his exoneration efforts while in prison and on parole.