By Associated Press - Friday, March 24, 2017

CLEVELAND (AP) - An Ohio man who spent 20 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned is suing prosecutors and East Cleveland detectives.

Cleveland.com (https://bit.ly/2nL0xd4 ) reports the federal lawsuit seeking unspecified damages for 39-year-old Eugene Johnson is separate from one filed last month by two other men imprisoned in the same 1995 slaying. Both suits allege detectives manipulated a witness used against the defendants.

Johnson, Laurese Glover and Derrick Wheatt denied killing 19-year-old Clifton Hudson. They were freed in 2015 after a judge ordered a new trial when attorneys working for the Ohio Innocence Project found that evidence was suppressed in the case.

Prosecutors say they don’t intend to re-try the men, and they’ve generally denied the allegations in the first lawsuit. East Cleveland officials asked for it to be dismissed.

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Information from: cleveland.com, https://www.cleveland.com

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