CHICAGO — In what may be a record for a wrongful conviction case, a federal jury on Friday awarded $25.2 million to a man who claimed Chicago police detectives railroaded him in a 1994 double murder investigation that put him behind bars for nearly 23 years.

The jury deliberated for about 10 hours over three days before finding in favor of Eddie Bolden on counts of malicious prosecution, violation of constitutional rights and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The 10-member jury awarded Bolden $25 million in compensatory damages, which are paid by the city, as well as $100,000 in punitive damages to be paid by the two surviving Chicago police detectives who were sued, Angelo Pesavento and James Oliver.

The punitive damages were four times the $25,000 that even Bolden’s attorneys requested.

The $25.2 million total verdict appears to be the highest award ever given to a single plaintiff in a wrongful conviction case in Chicago, edging out the $25 million handed to Thaddeus Jimenez in 2012. More recently, a jury in 2018 awarded Jacques Rivera more than $17 million in a wrongful conviction case against disgraced Detective Reynaldo Guevara.

Bolden, 51, nodded his head slightly as the jury verdict was read by U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger, then took off his eyeglasses and bowed his head to the floor. Standing with his attorneys afterward in the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, Bolden teared up as he said he could barely find words to describe what he felt.

“Finally,” he said. “It’s all I can say right now.”

Bolden’s lead attorney Ron Safer, said the clean-sweep verdict was a “complete vindication” for Bolden, who fought his conviction for decades before his release from prison in 2016.