A woman imprisoned for 25 years for a murder she didn't commit has accepted $1.25 million from the city.
"I look at it as absolutely too small an amount of money, but the city wasn't budging any," Betty Tyson said. "If I had of came out of prison retarded and insane, they would have awarded me more."Tyson's attorneys said they agreed to the settlement - one of the largest of its kind in Rochester - after reviewing a study of federal verdicts.
"In Rochester, juries are extremely conservative, and the true worth of 25 years in prison probably would not have been awarded to her," said attorney Brad Kammholz.
Tyson, 50, also is seeking compensation from New York state. She was New York's longest-serving female inmate.
A former prostitute, Tyson was sentenced 25 years to life in prison in the slaying of Timothy Haworth, 52, a consultant to Eastman Kodak Co. who was apparently soliciting a prostitute when he was strangled on May 25, 1973.
Her conviction was dismissed in May after a judge ruled evidence had been unlawfully suppressed.