Overview
- The city disclosed Tuesday it had reached a $35 million agreement with the exonerated men, pending City Council approval that officials say could require loans or bonds.
- Officials say the pact would resolve claims of Austin police misconduct and head off a lawsuit the men and Maurice Pierce’s family were expected to file.
- A Travis County judge declared the four innocent in February after new evidence cleared them of the killings at an I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt shop in 1991.
- Investigators in 2025 tied the crime to Robert Eugene Brashers through advanced DNA testing and a NIBIN ballistics hit on a .380 casing linked to a 1998 Kentucky murder; DNA from victim Amy Ayers matched Brashers, who died in 1999.
- The wrongful case carried severe costs for the men, including a death-row sentence, a life term later thrown out, years in jail, and Pierce’s 2010 death after a police confrontation, with families describing lasting hurdles finding work and housing.