Ohio man cleared of murder after 39 years in jail to get $1 million payment

(Reuters) - An Ohio man freed last year after spending 39 years in jail for a murder he did not commit will receive more than $1 million from the state for his wrongful imprisonment, court records show. An Ohio Court of Claims judge on Thursday ordered that just over $1 million be paid to Ricky Jackson, the longest-held U.S. prisoner to be cleared of a crime. "Wow, I didn't know that," Jackson told the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which said he learnt of the payment from a journalist. Jackson was convicted along with Wiley Bridgeman and Bridgeman's brother, Kwame Ajamu, for the 1975 murder of Harold Franks, a money order salesman in the Cleveland area, after a 12-year-old boy testified he saw the attack, court papers show.

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