Lawyer: Exonerated New York City man who served 23 years in prison dies from asthma attack

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK, N.Y. – A New York City man freed after serving 23 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit died over the weekend.

A friend and supporter of William Lopez says he died Saturday from an asthma attack.

Jeffrey Deskovic says Lopez passed away before his $124 million federal civil lawsuit against the city for false imprisonment was set to begin Tuesday.

It wasn’t immediately clear if it would be postponed.

Deskovic runs The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice that helped highlight Lopez’s case.

Lopez was freed in 2013 after a judge called the case “rotten from Day 1.”

According to prosecutors, two men shot a drug dealer with a double-barrelled shotgun in 1989. Although no murder weapon or forensic evidence was found at the scene, prosecutors relied on two witnesses.

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Information from: New York Post, http://www.nypost.com

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