A Long Island man who was falsely convicted of murdering his parents is now $3 million dollars richer.
The State of New York agreed to pay $3.375 million in taxpayer dollars to settle a lawsuit brought by Martin Tankleff, 42, according to the New York Times.
The Times has more on what happened to Tankleff 25 years ago:
The settlement, announced on Tuesday, was another measure of vindication for Mr. Tankleff, whose life turned upside down in September 1988, when he woke up on the morning he was supposed to begin his senior year in high school and discovered his father bleeding heavily in his home office. Mr. Tankleff, then 17, called 911, and by the time the authorities arrived, he discovered that his mother was also dead, bludgeoned and slashed.
A detective falsely told Tankleff his father had woken up from a coma and accused him of trying to kill him.
The Daily News reports that Tankleff gave a confession but never signed it and immediately took it back. He was, nevertheless, convicted in 1990 but exonerated in 2007 after new evidence suggested a business partner of Tankleff's father may have killed the couple.
Tankleff also has a pending federal case against Suffolk County, according to Newsday.
"I'd like to thank my family and friends, who have stood by me for the past 25 years," Tankleff said in a statement. "I am looking forward to my federal trial, where I hope to expose the misconduct that caused my wrongful conviction so that it does not happen to anyone else."
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