FBI Pays Out $101M in Mob Suit

Record award for four men wrongfully sent to prison for 1965 murder

By Dustin Lushing, Newser Staff

Posted Jul 26, 2007 4:54 PM CDT

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FBI Pays Out $101M in Mob Suit — Peter Limone, right, and Joseph Salvati embrace outside the Federal Courthouse in Boston after they were awarded a $101.7 million settlement for their wrongful conviction and three decade imprisonment Thursday, July 26, 2007. The two men were released from prison in 2001 after it was learned the FBI... (Associated Press)

A federal judge ordered the government to pay $101.7M after the FBI withheld evidence related to a 1965 murder in Boston that sent four men to prison for three decades. "This case is about intentional misconduct, suborning of perjury" and "the framing of innocent men," said the judge today at the close of the 22-day trial.

Peter Limone and Joseph Salvati and the families of Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo, who died behind bars, will receive the record-setting award. The judge lambasted the FBI for knowing that a key witness, notorious hitman Joseph "The Animal" Barboza, was lying but telling state prosecutors that his story "checked out." The government claims they were not required to share internal documents, a defense the judge called "absurd." (More prison stories.)

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