Claire Reid
A man who was falsely imprisoned for a murder his brother later confessed to has been given a $7.5 million payout.
Floyd Bledsoe, 43, was released from prison in 2015 after spending 15 years inside for the rape and murder of 14-year-old Camille Arfmann in November 1999 in Oskaloosa, Kansas.
He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2000, despite the fact his brother Tom had turned himself into Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, led investigators to the teenager’s body and handed over the murder weapon.
However, in court, Tom would testify against his brother and told the jury Floyd had tried to blackmail into taking the blame.
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Floyd was found guilty at trial and given a life-sentence.
But in 2015, DNA testing revealed that Tom was the most likely source of semen found in the victim’s body. And later that same year, Tom confessed to the horrendous crime in a note he wrote before taking his own life.
In total, Tom left three suicide notes, one of which stated: “I had sex with her, and killed her.”
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He also wrote: “Floyd is innocent,” and shared details about the murder that only the killer would have known, according to authorities.
Floyd had his charges dismissed and he was released from prison.
And last week, Jefferson County commissioners agreed to pay a $7.1 million settlement to Floyd.
He will receive $1.5 million initially, with the rest to be paid over the next 10 years, The Kansas City Star reports.
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Commissioner Richard Malm, who represents the county’s Third District, said the settlement was ‘pretty big’ - for context, the county has an annual budget of around $20 million.
Malm told The Kansas City Star: “We’re just going to have to tighten our belts a little bit. If they hadn’t agreed to spread it out over 10 years, we’d have had to float a bond and then pay interest.”
Floyd’s attorney Russell Ainsworth of Loevy & Loevy in Chicago said Jefferson County was facing up to $40 million in liability if the case went to trial.
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He said: “It also recognizes that a grave injustice was committed against an innocent man.
“Floyd looks forward to using the compensation to try and put his life back together again.”
Ainsworth that no amount would be adequate compensation for his client after being branded a killer and sent to a ‘hellhole’, while his children grew up without their dad in their lives.