Wrongly Convicted Brooklyn Man Sues State For $25 Million After Serving 24 Years In Prison

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - A Brooklyn man who spent a quarter of a century behind bars for a crime he didn't commit has filed a $25 million lawsuit against the state.

Derrick Deacon was convicted in the 1989 shooting death of teenager during a robbery in a Flatbush apartment complex.

He was freed on new evidence last year.

Deacon was granted a new trial in 2012 after an FBI cooperator identified a different man as the shooter and the recantation of a separate witness.

It took a jury just nine minutes to declare Deacon not guilty.

Deacon told the New York Post that prosecutors "have to pay for every day it made me suffer behind the wall for no reason.''

A spokeswoman for the state attorney declined to comment on the lawsuit.

So far in 2014, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office has worked to free four people who were wrongfully convicted. Last week, a man who had also served 24 years for a murder he did not commit was exonerated.

DA Ken Thompson, who took office on Jan. 1, ran on a platform of reviewing past convictions using new technology.

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