An individual who spent nearly four decades in prison for a crime he did not commit has received a $25 million settlement from California authorities. Maurice Hastings, now 72, was released after new DNA evidence proved his innocence in the 1983 sexual assault and murder of Roberta Wydermyer.
According to court documents made public on Monday, the settlement—reached in August—is believed by Hastings’ lawyers to be the largest wrongful conviction payout in California’s history.
Hastings had been convicted and sentenced to life without parole after being accused of killing Wydermyer with a single gunshot to the head. The lawsuit alleged that two Inglewood Police Department officers and an investigator from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office framed him for the crime.
“No amount of money could ever restore the 38 years of my life that were stolen from me,” Hastings said in a statement. “But this settlement is a welcome end to a very long road, and I look forward to moving on with my life.”
Requests for comment sent Tuesday to lawyers representing the defendants and to a spokesperson for the City of Inglewood went unanswered. Further details about the agreement have not been disclosed.
The case against Hastings began unraveling after years of legal efforts. During Wydermyer’s autopsy, bodily fluids were collected as part of a sexual assault examination. Although Hastings requested DNA testing on this evidence as early as 2000, his request was denied at that time by prosecutors. In 2021, he submitted another claim of innocence through the district attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit; subsequent DNA analysis determined that semen found at the scene did not belong to him.
Prosecutors joined defense attorneys in seeking vacatur of his conviction in 2022 when he was 69 years old. The DNA profile instead matched Kenneth Packnett—a man already serving time for another violent crime involving kidnapping and sexual assault under circumstances similar to those surrounding Wydermyer’s death.
Packnett had been arrested less than three weeks after Wydermyer’s murder on unrelated charges but was never investigated for her killing at that time despite being found with items belonging to her. He died in prison in 2020 while serving his sentence for other offenses.
A judge formally declared Hastings “factually innocent” in 2023, confirming there was conclusive evidence he did not commit the crime.
Since his release, Hastings has returned to Southern California and remains active within his church community, according to his attorneys.
“Police departments throughout California and across the country should take notice that there is a steep price to pay for allowing such egregious misconduct on their watch,” said Nick Brustin, one of Hastings’ attorneys.
