The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has reinstated an $18 million verdict against New York City that was awarded to a man exonerated by DNA evidence after an 11-year delay by law enforcement to find a rape kit.

“The NYPD’s evidence management system failed miserably” in the case of Alan Newton, said Judge Raymond Lohier (See Profile), and the problem of lost evidence was “by no means isolated to Newton’s case.”