Los Angeles approves the largest individual civil rights settlement ever in city history to NSB client Kash Delano Register

The City of Los Angeles approved a $16.7 million settlement to compensate NSB client Kash Delano Register for the over 34 years he spent wrongly imprisoned for the 1979 robbery and murder of 79-year-old Jack Sasson. This is believed to be the largest individual civil rights settlement ever in Los Angeles.

Mr. Register was 18 years old when he was arrested and 53 when he was released. His 34 ½ years behind bars is one of the longest sentences served by a wrongfully convicted defendant. Mr. Register, who is African American, was initially convicted by an all-white jury in 1979 based on the testimony of two eyewitnesses, despite the non-existence of physical evidence linking him to the crime and his girlfriend’s testimony that she was with him at the time of the victim’s assault. NSB established during discovery that LAPD detectives had used suggestive identification procedures to obtain the two misidentifications, and had hidden substantial exculpatory evidence (including the statements of two other witnesses that Mr. Register was not the perpetrator). This evidence led to the pre-trial settlement.

NSB partners Barry Scheck, Nick Brustin and Anna Benvenutti Hoffmann, along with NSB associate Farhang Heydari, represented Mr. Register.

Read coverage of the story in the Los Angeles Times here.