The family of Lee Harris, who spent more than three decades in prison for the murder of a Gold Coast woman before being exonerated and released last year, might soon be awarded $4 million in Chicago taxpayer money.
Aldermen advanced the proposed settlement Monday in a bid to resolve allegations Harris made in a lawsuit last September that Chicago police officers framed him for the 1989 murder of Dana Feitler. The deal could save the city $3 million in legal fees before a trial even begins, while evidence points to another suspect in the case, city attorney Jessica Felker said.
But the money — if approved by the full City Council in a vote expected Wednesday — will never touch Harris’ hands. He died last Thanksgiving, just eight months after finally winning back his freedom. His family at the time cited natural causes. He was 68 years old.
The prison time “didn’t break him,” his son, Jermaine Harris, who is now carrying the lawsuit forward, told the Tribune then.
“The plan was for him to be around a long time,” his son added.
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Harris was convicted in the murder of the 24-year-old Feitler, who was fatally shot in the back of the head after withdrawing $400 from an ATM near her Gold Coast apartment building. The man had previously been a confidential informant to two officers investigating the murder, Felker said.
Police reported that Harris admitted to being in the alley where Feitler was shot when detectives brought him to the scene. He also told police that he and another man only meant to rob the woman, while another man wanted to kill her.
But Harris claimed those same statements were “falsified and fed to him,” Felker said.
His lawsuit alleged police forced him to give false statements and framed him, the attorney added. The state’s attorney’s office and police gave him food, money and housing that he contended were “used to induce him to give more false statements,” she said.
A jury convicted him in 1992.
Harris continued to fight the jury’s decision. Forensic testing later linked another man to the crime who was identified in a lineup by a witness, Felker said. A man who claimed Harris confessed to him also recanted his testimony and said detectives had coerced him to give it, she added.
Last March, a judge vacated Harris’ conviction and sentence, and prosecutors declined to try him again. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said her office “had determined that Harris didn’t in fact do this” and was “likely actually innocent.”
The $4 million settlement is the “fiscally prudent” move for the city, Felker advised aldermen on the City Council’s Finance Committee.
The committee approved another $950,000 in three additional settlements.
A $225,000 settlement was awarded to the family of Joshua Beal, shot by police during a racially charged road rage incident in 2016. Off-duty Chicago police Officer Joseph Treacy shot Beal as Beal drove in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood after attending a funeral.
Beal’s family alleged Treacy “was screaming racial obscenities at Beal and other funeral attendees prior to the shooting,” an accusation Treacy denied. The fatal shooting prompted protests by Black Lives Matter demonstrators.
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In another settlement, aldermen also advanced a $400,000 settlement with a woman whose car was struck by a Chicago Fire Department engine with failing brakes in a 2019 Woodlawn crash.
Tribune reporter Christy Gutowski contributed to this story.
