A US man who spent 22 years in prison for a crime he did not commit has been awarded £11.5 million ($18.5 million) by a federal jury after he was released in 2006 after DNA evidence proved that he did not commit the crime.

Alan Newton was convicted and received a life sentence in 1984 for the rape and assault of a woman at a convenience store in the Bronx area of New York City.

The 49-year-old African-American had started a petition in 1994 to have a DNA test to prove his innocents, but it took 11-years for the test to finally be done.

Newton was released in 2006 but the court case for compensation lasted for several years with the 49-year-old “vindicated” by the Manhattan jury’s decision.

Had Newton’s innocence not have been proved he would have been let out in 2024 a further 18-years later.

A non-profit organization which looks at suspicious cases in several countries around the world including Canada and the United States, The Innocence Project had taken on Newton’s case.

An Innocence Project is dedicated to proving the innocence of wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA Testing, and to the reform of criminal justice systems to prevent future injustice.

Newton has been reported to be interested in going to law school but will go on a holiday before that “to a hot place”.

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