When a Circuit Court jury found Ike Fowler not guilty of first-degree robbery in February, he was allowed to walk out of the courtroom a free man.
Before 2002 that was not the case for hundreds of defendants who were acquitted or released by order of the court.
Instead, they were sent back to prison and treated like any other convicted inmate, to be "out-processed" before being released, days and sometimes weeks or even months later -- most times because the court's written order for release was delayed or lost.
Federal Magistrate Leslie Kobayashi approved a $1.2 million settlement agreement yesterday reached between the American Civil Liberties Union and the state to compensate such defendants, who were over-detained and subjected to invasive strip searches between December 1999 and December 2002.
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