NEW YORK, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- A New York man has received nearly $3.4 million in a wrongful imprisonment suit after spending 17 years in prison for the 1988 killing of his parents.
The $3.375 million award to Martin Tankleff came after an appellate court overturned his conviction in 2007, the New York Post reported Wednesday.
Tankleff had been sentenced to 50 years in prison after Suffolk County police said he confessed to killing his adoptive parents, Seymour and Arlene Tankleff, in their home on Long Island.
Tankleff later said the confession was coerced by the investigators, who lied that his father was still conscious and blamed him for the attack.
His lawyers have accused Seymour Tankleff's estranged former business partner, Jerry Steuerman, in the killings. Steuerman invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination more than 140 times during questioning last year in a federal lawsuit, the New York Daily News reported.
Tankleff has also brought a federal lawsuit against Suffolk County and the detectives who questioned him in his parent's murders.
"I am looking forward to my federal trial where I hope to expose the misconduct that caused my wrongful conviction so that it does not happen to anyone else," said Tankleff, now 42.
He is scheduled to graduate from Touro Law School in May.
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