Families of 3 Exonerated Men Settle for $16.5M with Mississippi Counties, Insurers

August 22, 2016

A $16.5 million settlement has been reached in a lawsuit that claims three Mississippi men were imprisoned for decades for a crime they did not commit, lawyers said.

According to The Hattiesburg American, a settlement reached Aug. 1 involves the Mississippi counties of Hattiesburg and Forrest, a half dozen insurance companies and the families of Larry Ruffin, Phillip Bivens and Bobby Ray Dixon. The three men were exonerated in a rape and capital murder case in Forrest County.

Attorney Bill Beck, who represented the Bivens family, said an additional $4 million would be set aside for appeals. It will be up to the plaintiffs to decide how the money is split between them.

David Hogan, the president of the Forrest County board of supervisors, said the county’s insurers will cover nearly two-thirds of the $16.5 million settlement.

He called the county’s $5.4 million portion of the settlement “substantial,” but that it was much less than what is paid for settlements and jury verdicts obtained in similar cases around the country.

Bivens and Dixon pleaded guilty to their fabricated roles in the 1979 rape and murder of Eva Gail Patterson. A jury found Ruffin guilty. Bivens and Dixon were beaten repeatedly and threatened with death before confessing to crimes they didn’t commit. They were later beaten again when their testimony was challenged.

The two men confessed and agreed to testify against Ruffin, who also confessed, in exchange for life sentences. A jury found Ruffin guilty, and he was sentenced to life.

The Innocence Project took up their case and helped prove the men were not guilty of the crimes for which they spent 30 years in prison. DNA evidence from the scene of the crime didn’t match any of the men.

Bivens and Dixon were exonerated in 2010, when a grand jury failed to indict the two men and Circuit Court Judge Bob Helfrich set aside their convictions. Dixon died in 2010, soon after his release from prison. Bivens died in 2014.

Ruffin, who died in prison in 2002, was exonerated in 2011.

The federal lawsuit is to settle claims of wrongdoing by Hattiesburg, the Hattiesburg Police Department, Forrest County and officers with both Hattiesburg Police Department and Forrest County Sheriff’s Department.

Topics Carriers Mississippi

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