The Chicago City Council finance com­mit­tee quick­ly approved a $2.2 mil­lion wrong­ful con­vic­tion set­tle­ment for for­mer death row inmate Ronald Jones. ​“I think it is a good deal for the city,” said Chicago Alderman William Beavers, indi­cat­ing that he and oth­er alder­men breathed a sigh of relief that the city will get off so cheap­ly in its set­tle­ment with Jones, who was coerced into a con­fes­sion to a 1985 rape and mur­der that he did not com­mit. Jones spent 14 years on Illinois’s death row before DNA tests exclud­ed him as the per­pe­tra­tor. Former Illinois Governor George Ryan par­doned Jones in 2000. (Chicago Tribune, December 16, 2003) See Innocence; Costs.

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