Man to get $1.4M from Nevada after wrongful murder conviction
More than three years after he was pardoned for a murder he did not commit, Fred Steese is expected to receive a seven-figure settlement from Nevada.
Steese, his attorney and the state attorney general’s office recently reached an agreement for Steese to be paid more than $1.35 million.
District Judge Jasmin Lilly-Spells is expected to sign off on the settlement at a hearing on Monday.
As part of the agreement, Steese would receive $75,000 for each year he was imprisoned after his conviction for the death of 56-year-old Gerard Soules, who ran a dog show at Circus Circus.
In total, Steese spent more than 21 years behind bars, but he would not be paid for the time he spent in jail while awaiting trial.
Now 57, he was convicted in March 1995 and freed in February 2013, when he reached out to criminal defense attorney Lisa Rasmussen.
“It’s just an incredible relief that I’ve been able to accomplish this for him,” said Rasmussen, who has helped Steese adjust to life outside prison walls.
Officials with the Nevada attorney general’s office could not be reached Friday.
It was not until November 2017 that the Nevada Board of Pardons cleared Steese of the wrongful murder conviction.
Steese was prosecuted by Douglas Herndon, now a Nevada Supreme Court justice, and Bill Kephart, even though Steese’s lawyers said he was in Idaho at the time of the slaying. He fought his conviction while serving a life sentence, and in 2012, then-District Judge Elissa Cadish, now also a justice on the state’s high court, declared Steese actually innocent.
Rasmussen said Steese’s 1992 confession to police was coerced and beaten out of him after he had driven three days without sleep to talk to investigators about a friend who had been killed.
Under the state’s agreement with Steese, he will be granted a certificate of innocence, and the judge will order his records sealed. He also could be reimbursed for housing at the going average monthly mortgage, along with the cost of tuition, books and fees should he pursue a degree through the Nevada System of Higher Education. In addition, he could receive money for health insurance through a state program.
Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.
