(CNN) - The state of Kansas will pay Richard Jones $1.1 million after he spent 17 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit.
Jones was convicted of a robbery in the parking lot of a Walmart after witnesses misidentified him as the suspect.
There was no physical evidence or DNA linking Jones to the crime. He was at a birthday party when the crime was committed, as several guests testified, but the jury was unconvinced by the alibi.
He was finally freed in 2017, after the Midwest Innocence Project and the University of Kansas School of Law helped uncover the wrongful conviction. Witnesses of the robbery could not tell him and another inmate, Ricky Amos, apart.
Amos lived in the area at the time and bears a striking resemblance to Jones. The Innocence Project believes he was the real perpetrator.
Besides the settlement, Jones will receive a certificate of innocence and the record of his arrest and conviction will be expunged.
The statute of limitations on the crime has passed, so Amos could not be prosecuted.
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