City Settles Carmon Case For $16.5M

By Thomas Breen, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — The Elicker administration has agreed to pay Adam Carmon $16.5 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit stemming from the 28 years he served in prison for an era-defining shooting that killed a 7-month-old girl and paralyzed her grandmother.

Carmon was convicted of that murder in 1994 — a verdict a judge belatedly concluded was a miscarriage of justice produced by prosecutorial and police misconduct in New Haven. Carmon was released from prison in June 2023 after a state judge vacated his conviction and dismissed his case.

This is the latest in a series of eight-figure settlements and expected future settlements between the city and Black men who spent decades imprisoned on what turned out to be false or unproven murder charges.

“Nothing can ever make up for the years that were taken from me, but I find some solace in the fact that they’re coming to grips with their wrongdoing,” Carmon is quoted as saying in a Thursday press release posted to the website of the law firm Kaufman Lieb Lebowitz & Frick.

“We are deeply proud of this result and of Adam Carmon’s incredible resilience,” Carmon’s lawyer, Doug Lieb, is quoted as saying in that same press release. “But this case shows why there are no winners when police departments turn a blind eye to misconduct. Wrongfully convicted people lose precious freedom, victims are denied closure, and citizens pay the price. All these years later, we believe this settlement represents an important step toward imperfect justice.”

Mayor Justin Elicker announced the city’s settlement with Carmon in a Thursday morning email press release.

The settlement comes three years after Carmon sued the city in 2023, and roughly two months before his case was set to go to trial in January. U.S. District Court Judge S. Dave Vatti presided over a settlement conference in this case on Oct. 16 that lasted nine hours and 15 minutes.

It also comes a year after the state agreed to pay Carmon a wrongful-conviction compensation award of $7.9 million.

And it comes after the city recently agreed to pay Vernon Horn and Marquis Jackson a combined total of $30.5 million to settle two other wrongful-conviction cases on the brink of trial. Alders voted earlier this month to approve borrowing $27 million to cover the city’s portion of those payouts.

Meanwhile, in May, a federal jury in Hartford awarded Stefon Morant $38 million in still another wrongful-conviction case that the city had taken to trial. (The city is appealing the Morant decision.)

“When there is a miscarriage of justice,” Elicker is quoted as saying in Thursday’s press release, “we have an obligation to do what we can to make things right.” (See below for Elicker’s statement in full.)

Carmon had sued the city in July 2023 on the grounds that the New Haven Police Department had fabricated evidence tying Carmon to the supposed murder weapon, among other claims.

He filed that lawsuit after state Superior Court Judge Jon Alander vacated Carmon’s conviction in late November 2022, citing both new science and the suppression of numerous pieces of evidence that could have been used in Carmon’s defense. In his decision at the time, ordering a new trial, Alander wrote, “How could anyone have confidence in a verdict of guilty in a case such as this?”

Elicker’s press release on Thursday states that the mayor will submit to the Board of Alders a request for approval for the city to bond for the full proposed settlement amount. “The mayoral administration at the time this incident took place in 1994 did not have insurance for wrongful incarceration settlements and therefore the City is required to cover the entire cost of the settlement,” the press release states.

See below for Elicker’s statement in full.

Mayor Elicker’s Statement

When there is a miscarriage of justice, we have an obligation to do what we can to make things right.

Mr. Carmon spent nearly 29 years accused and imprisoned for allegedly committing a heinous crime — a conviction that was later overturned. I was not mayor at the time when this incident occurred over thirty years ago, but I am the mayor today – and, today, we aim to make things right.

As mayor, I am deeply sorry for the injustice that Mr. Carmon has experienced and endured. While no amount of money can give Mr. Carmon back the nearly three decades of his life spent in prison, I hope this settlement will provide Mr. Carmon with some sense of justice and peace moving forward. I wish him and his family well.

I am also mindful of the young child we lost, the grandmother who was paralyzed and the family who endured such tragic loss and lasting trauma. We continue to grieve with them as well.

Importantly, some of the factors that led to this miscarriage of justice include now-outdated scientific and identification techniques that are no longer part of policing in New Haven. Today, our police officers and detectives utilize modernized practices and state-of-the-art technology designed to help ensure their ability to solve crimes, provide due process and deliver justice for our residents.

As a city, we will continue to responsibly reckon with the past, while also recommitting ourselves to a more just and safer society today and moving forward.

The article includes previous reporting by Laura Glesby.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.