California man awarded $25 million for wrongful conviction after 38 years in prison
Maurice Hastings, who spent 38 years in prison for a 1983 murder later found to be factually innocent, receives a record settlement from California authorities.
A California man was awarded $25 million in a settlement with the state over a wrongful conviction that kept him behind bars for 38 years. Maurice Hastings, 72, was convicted in 1983 of the sexual assault and murder of Roberta Wydermyer and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The settlement, reached in August, was disclosed in court records made public on Monday.
Prosecutors said two Inglewood Police Department officers and a Los Angeles District Attorney investigator were implicated in misconduct that contributed to Hastings's conviction. At the time of Wydermyer's autopsy, investigators collected evidence from a sexual assault examination. Hastings sought DNA testing of that evidence in 2000, but the request was denied by the DA's office. Hastings submitted a claim of innocence to the DA's Conviction Integrity Unit in 2021, and in 2022 prosecutors moved to vacate his conviction at the request of prosecutors and his lawyers. In 2023, a California judge ruled Hastings was factually innocent.
DNA testing later linked the semen to a different man, Kenneth Packnett, who was convicted of an armed kidnapping and forced copulation in a separate case. Packnett was arrested less than three weeks after Wydermyer's murder in connection with an unrelated car theft. Jewelry and a coin purse matching Wydermyer's belongings were found in his possession. Packnett died in 2020 in prison, where he was serving a different sentence.
The settlement is the largest wrongful-conviction payout in California history. Hastings now lives in Southern California, where he attends church and engages in community and faith-based activities, according to his lawyers. "Police departments throughout California and across the country should take notice that there is a steep price to pay for allowing such egregious misconduct on their watch," said Nick Brustin, one of Hastings's attorneys.
Requests for comment from the City of Inglewood and the DA's office were not immediately returned.