Connecticut will pay $5.9 million to the family of a disabled man arrested for a 1992 murder.

Connecticut will pay nearly $5.9 million to the family of a disabled man who was wrongfully imprisoned for more than two decades before being freed in 2015 when his conviction for the 1992 murder and rape of an 88-year-old grandmother was dismissed.

Richard Lapointe, who died in 2020 at the age of 74, had Dandy-Walker syndrome, a congenital brain defect that his lawyers say was a factor in his false confession. Lapointe has never maintained his innocence, but his lawyers and the state attorney general’s office have finally agreed to settle after years of legal battles.

The state says the commissioner’s office on Jan. 2 set this amount to be given to the family, although it still needs to be approved by the legislature. The claims commissioner’s office decides whether people can file lawsuits against the state or recover money under the state’s wrongful imprisonment law.

Claims Commissioner Robert Shea Jr. he said his office agreed the award was “reasonable and appropriate.”

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Lapointe’s lawyer, Paul Casteleiro, said the award “recognizes the injustice he did in prosecuting and imprisoning an innocent man. Sadly, Richard did not live long enough to see his final vindication.”

“This award is not enough compensation for what was done to Richard Lapointe,” Casteleiro said Friday, adding that the state destroyed his client’s life “for a crime he did not commit.”

The attorney general’s office said in a statement on Friday that it “negotiated the resolution of this claim for the benefit of all parties. This reflects that plan.”

In 1987, Lapointe’s wife’s grandmother, Bernice Martin, was found stabbed, raped and strangled in her burning home in Manchester, Connecticut.

Lapointe was convicted of Martin’s murder in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Key evidence in the case included Lapointe’s confession during a nearly 10-hour interrogation by Manchester police.

His lawyers argued that his mental disability was caused by his false confession and that his confession was coerced without his lawyers.

Lapointe was convicted of murder in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. (Stock)

The state Supreme Court ruled 4-2 in a 2015 ruling that Lapointe was deprived of a proper trial because prosecutors did not disclose the officer’s notes that could have supported an alibi defense. Later that year, prosecutors said the new DNA test did not implicate Lapointe and all charges were dropped.

No one else has ever been charged with Martin’s murder.

Lapointe was released from custody a short time later and walked out of the Hartford courthouse wearing a black T-shirt that read “I didn’t do it” as he threw his hands in the air in victory.

“Of course I didn’t,” Lapointe said at the time. “That wasn’t me. I wouldn’t do something like that to someone. I wouldn’t even kill my biggest enemy.”

Casteleiro said the case against Lapointe destroyed his family, who shunned him.

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The state Supreme Court ruled 4-2 in a 2015 ruling that Lapointe was deprived of a fair trial. (Stock)

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Before Martin’s death, Lapointe and his wife, who has cerebral palsy, “were living together. They were doing well,” Casteleiro said. But after his arrest, his wife divorced him, and he was no longer able to communicate with his son, who was young at the time.

After his release from prison, Lapointe began suffering from dementia, was placed in a nursing home in East Hartford and died after a battle with COVID-19, according to his lawyers.

Lapointe has the support of several lawyers, including the Friends of Richard Lapointe group and Centurion, the organization Casteleiro works for that helps the wrongfully convicted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.