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On Wednesday, Dec. 9, news broke that Mark Schand, 55, of Hartford, and the City of Springfield will settle on giving $6.5 million to Schand for the part the city’s police played in the conviction.
Schand was initially awarded $27 million in his suit against Springfield - $1 million for each year of false imprisonment - but upon appeal and negotiation, Schand will get $6.5 million, according to Fox61.
The lesser amount did not come as a shock to Schand who told Fox61 in 2019 that he expected to settle to an amount below $27 million and that no amount of money could ever compensate him for the lost time.
In 1987 Schand had been falsely convicted of felony murder in the first degree, armed robbery, and assault with intent to kill, according to court documents. He was sentenced to life without parole. In the 1990s, a push for a new trial based on evidence that was allegedly withheld in the first was denied.
In 2010, Centurion Ministries, a nonprofit that investigates wrongful imprisonment claims, examined Schand’s case and found discrepancies in the evidence. The conviction was vacated in 2013 and Schaund sued Springfield in 2015 for the actions of the officers that led to his time in jail.
Schand now owns several Sweet Water smoothie cafes in Connecticut.
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