Jamal Trulove
San Francisco, CA — Jamal Trulove, an African-American man who spent over 8 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, will receive a $13.1 million settlement from the city of San Francisco. The city’s Board of Supervisors have approved the settlement, confirming that two police officers framed him for the murder that he was convicted for.Trulove, a former I Love New York 2 contestant, had an up-and-coming career as an actor and a hip-hop artist when he was arrested and convicted of murder in the killing of his friend Seu Kuka in 2007. He spent more than 8 years behind bars before a state appeals court overturned his conviction in 2014 due to prosecutorial misconduct. He has been found innocent in a retrial in 2015.
In 2016, Trulove filed a lawsuit against the officers involved. The federal jury found that two of the lead officers on the case, Maureen D’Amico and Michael Johnson, did not only manipulated witnesses and fabricated evidence against him but also concealed information that could have proven him innocent.
On Tuesday, he was given the $13.1-million settlement. But he said it wasn’t enough for the emotional distress, trauma, and humiliation he experienced as well as the times he wasn’t able to spend with his kids and family.
Alex Reisman, one of the lawyers for Trulove, told the San Francisco Gate, he “endured a lot” spending years in maximum security prisons several miles away from his family and at one point, even being stabbed.
Meanwhile, the four police officers named in the lawsuit have reportedly retired and did not receive any disciplinary action regarding the case. But Trulove said in a recent Twitter post that he is “not done with them by a long shot!! After what these cowards of the law did to me, I will lit my freedom ring through every platform I get to show what injustice really looks like. Me!”
This year, Trulove continues his acting career as he appears in the movie The Last Black Man in San Francisco, which is scheduled to be released in June.