Former Illinois death row inmate Steven Manning (pic­tured) has been award­ed $6.6 mil­lion in a civ­il law­suit against two FBI agents. A jury found that the agents had framed Manning twice, includ­ing once for mur­der. The jury found FBI agents Robert Buchan and Gary Miller liable of con­coct­ing evi­dence to frame Manning, their one-time infor­mant and a for­mer Chicago police offi­cer, in the mur­der of a truck­ing firm exec­u­tive and in the kid­nap­ping of two Missouri drug deal­ers. Manning’s attor­ney, Jon Loevy, not­ed that the agents were moti­vat­ed by revenge because Manning had sued them for harass­ment after quit­ting as an infor­mant. Manning’s wrong­ful con­vic­tions were over­turned and he was even­tu­al­ly released from death row in February 2004. ​“He was in prison with the worst of the worst. Everybody was a mur­der­er or a rapist and they all hat­ed cops. It was hell,” said Loevy of Manning’s case.

At a time when Illinois had car­ried out 12 exe­cu­tions, Manning was the 13th death row exoneree in the state to be freed. His exon­er­a­tion was among a series of events that prompt­ed then-Governor George Ryan to declare a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions until the state took steps to address its flawed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. The civ­il judg­ment against the fed­er­al agents may be paid by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. The agents found liable in the case are unlike­ly to face charges. (Reuters, January 25, 2005). See Innocence and Costs.

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