$48 million settlement recommended for 3 men wrongfully convicted of 1986 arson and double murder
Chicago taxpayers could soon be on the hook for $48 million to compensate three men who each spent 35 years in prison for an arson and murder they did not commit.
The City Council Finance Committee will vote Monday on the proposed settlement for John Galvan, Arthur Almendarez, and Francisco Nanez, who were wrongfully convicted of setting a 1986 fire that killed two brothers in the Little Village neighborhood.
If approved, Galvan and Almendarez each would get $20 million from the settlement, and Nanez would get $8 million.
The three men claim police beat them into giving false confessions for an arson in the early-morning hours on Sept. 21, 1986. An apartment building at 2603 W. 24th Pl. in the Little Village neighborhood went up in smoke. Two young men - Guadalupe and Julio Martinez, who lived in the upstairs apartment with their family – were both killed.
All three maintained their innocence at trial, but were convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In 2022, they were released from prison after the Illinois Appellate Court vacated their convictions.
"I'm trying not to let the anger poison my soul," Almendarez said after his release. "I've been fighting this whole time. I've been so mad."
Cook County prosecutors later dropped all charges against the men, and they are still seeking certificates of innocence to fully clear their names.
According to their lawsuit, not only did police torture them into false confessions, but arson investigators' claims that they set the fire by throwing a beer bottle filled with gasoline and ignited it with a lit cigarette were later proven impossible.
"Highly credentialed arson experts have all concluded that it is scientifically impossible for a burning cigarette to ignite a flammable gasoline vapor, the very premise for the arson," the men's attorneys wrote in their lawsuit.
If approved by the Finance Committee on Monday, the proposed settlement could go to the full City Council for final approval on May 21.
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