WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) — A former suburban Chicago man who was wrongfully imprisoned for a 1999 murder will receive $9 million in a settlement with law enforcement agencies involved in the case.
The Daily Herald reports 42-year-old Jason Strong will receive $6 million from the city of Waukegan. The remaining $3 million will be divided between nine other agencies that were part of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, which investigated the killing.
Strong was convicted in 2000 of killing Carpentersville resident Mary Kate Sunderlin, whose badly beaten body was found in a forest preserve near North Chicago in December 1999.
The Lake County State’s Attorney dropped all charges against him in 2015, citing new medical and forensic evidence that contradicted testimony at his trial.
Strong now lives in Tennessee.