Associated Press: US Federal government ordered to pay $101m to wrongfully imprisoned four

Courtesy of Forbes, for anyone who thinks the US criminal justice system really works.

BOSTON - A federal judge Thursday ordered the government to pay $101.4 million in the case of four men who spent decades in prison for a 1965 murder they didn't commit after the FBI withheld evidence of their innocence.

Peter Limone, Joseph Salvati and the families of the two other men who died in prison had sued the federal government for malicious prosecution.

They argued Boston FBI agents knew mob hitman Joseph "The Animal" Barboza lied when he named them as killers in a 1965 slaying. They said Barboza wanted to protect a fellow FBI informant, Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi, who was involved.

"It took 30 years to uncover this injustice, and the government's position is, in a word, absurd," said U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner.