Can you put a price on spending a third of your life in prison for a crime you didn’t commit? That was the question facing Floyd Bledsoe of Kansas, who earlier this month received a $7.5 million settlement after being wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in 1999. Bledsoe spent 16 years in prison for the sexual abuse and killing of 14-year-old Camille Arfmann—a crime that was actually committed by his brother, Tom. In his lawsuit against the city of Oskaloosa, Floyd claimed that his brother had led law enforcement to Arfmann’s body and confessed to the murder, but that police had decided to “frame” him instead. Tom died by suicide in 2015 after DNA testing revealed he was likely the true perpetrator, using his final written words to confess once again to the horrific crime and finally free his brother.
