Overview

• The agreement was reached in August and surfaced in court filings this week, days before the civil case was set for trial.
• Hastings spent 38 years in prison after a late-1980s conviction for the 1983 killing of Roberta Wydermyer.
• DNA testing by the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit in 2022 excluded Hastings and produced a profile that matched Kenneth Packnett, who died in prison in 2020.
• The lawsuit alleged Inglewood detectives and a DA investigator coerced identifications, suppressed alibi evidence and fabricated statements.
• A judge declared Hastings factually innocent in 2023; city officials did not comment and other settlement terms were not disclosed, while the LA Innocence Project and Cal State LA aided the exoneration.