Judge recommends $1M payout to wrongfully convicted Florida man

A central Florida judge ruled last week that a man wrongfully convicted of murder in 2002 should be paid over $1 million in restitution. Jeffrey Abramowski spent about 23 years in prison after a jury convicted him in 2006 of fatally beating Cortney Crandall in 2002.

New DNA evidence presented in Abramowski’s case last year led to the second-degree murder conviction being overturned. Administrative Law Judge Lisa Shearer Nelson recommended last week that Abramowski should receive $50,000 for each year he was wrongfully incarcerated, bringing the projected restitution to about $1.15 million, according to a report by News Service of Florida.

How was Abramowski implicated in the murder? Police began investigating Abramowski’s involvement in the 78-year-old’s murder based on a tip from other individuals who were also under investigation. Three people who were questioned about Crandall’s death claimed that Abramowski had several run-ins with Crandall and had threatened to kill her weeks before her death, according to The Exoneration Registry.

Abramowski denied involvement in Crandall’s death and told police he was addicted to OxyContin, which police found on Crandall’s body at the crime scene. Abramowski said he and Crandall ran an ongoing doctor-shopping scheme to get prescription pain meds. Abramowski’s first two trials ended in mistrials before his 2006 conviction.

Circuit Judge Steven Henderson overturned Abramowski’s conviction last April, and State Attorney William Scheiner confirmed in July that the state would not retry with the new evidence. A circuit judge will now review the case and give a final decision on Nelson’s recommendation for the $1 million payout.

Dig deeper: Listen to Grace Snell’s report in The World and Everything in It about a wrongfully imprisoned ex-convict helping former inmates stay out of prison.