New York: An American who spent 23 years in jail for a murder he did not commit has died less than two years after being freed and on the eve of beginning a multi-million-dollar lawsuit. William Lopez, 55, was preparing to bring a $124 million (Dh455 million or £76 million) false imprisonment case against the city of New York, when he suffered a fatal asthma attack on Saturday. He had been freed in January 2013.
Jeffrey Deskovic, Lopez’s friend and lawyer, said he had hoped to spend money gained from the lawsuit, which was due to begin today, on travel, education and treating himself to luxuries he had been unable to enjoy while in prison.
Lopez had always maintained his innocence over the death of Elvirn Surria, a suspected drug dealer, who was killed in 1989 with a shotgun in a crack den in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Brighton Beach.
He was convicted on what was later described by an appeal judge as “flimsy” evidence. One witness gave a description which did not match that of Lopez, while the other was a drug addict who had been on a crack binge when the murder took place and later recanted. Friends said that during his brief period of freedom, Lopez had enjoyed spending time with his wife Alice and daughter, Crystal, who was just 14 months old when he went to prison.
