DC agrees to $16.65 million settlement with wrongly convicted man who spent 27 years in prison

WASHINGTON – The District of Columbia has agreed to pay $16.65 million to a man who spent 27 years in prison for a rape and murder he didn't commit.

That's about $617,000 for every year Donald Eugene Gates spent in prison. Gates was freed in 2009 after DNA evidence cleared him in the 1981 rape and murder of Georgetown University student Catherine Schilling. A federal jury on Wednesday found that police fabricated and withheld evidence in the case. City officials settled the case Thursday as the jury was getting ready to decide damages in the case.

Gates, who now lives in Tennessee, has already received more than a million dollars from the federal government for its role in his conviction. The settlement with the city brings his total compensation to $18 million.