New Haven committee recommends borrowing $17.5M for wrongful conviction settlement

NEW HAVEN — The city’s aldermanic finance committee voted to favorably recommend bonding up to $17.5 million to pay a $16.5 million settlement to Adam Carmon, who was wrongfully convicted and later exonerated for the shooting death of an infant.

A vote to borrow funds to pay the settlement is expected to come before the full Board of Alders for a vote on Dec. 7.

Last month, the Board of Alders voted to approve borrowing $27 million for a similar, but unrelated, settlement made to two men who were imprisoned because of flawed police and prosecutorial work in the 1990s.

According to an estimation provided by the city, borrowing $17.5 million could accrue an estimated $8.75 million in interest — totaling $26.25 million — before the bond is paid off in 2047. City Controller Michael Gormany said to the committee Monday that the city proposes borrowing up to $1 million above the settlement because of potential issuance costs.

Carmon was convicted in 1995 of murdering 7-month-old Danielle Taft and paralyzing her grandmother after more than a dozen shots were fired through the window of an Orchard Street apartment on Feb. 3, 1994. Carmon, who was 21 at the time of the shooting, served 29 years of an 85-year prison sentence for the shooting before he was exonerated in 2022 and all charges were dropped during a retrial in 2023. Defense attorneys presented evidence that New Haven police and prosecutors withheld 40 pieces of evidence from Carmon’s lawyers during his initial trial and new forensic evidence undermined the 1995 trial jury’s verdict.

Read the full article at the New Haven Register.