Appeals court upholds $102 million verdict for men sent away for murder they didn't commit

The First US Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the verdict against the government for the way the FBI withheld evidence that would have exonerated four men who spent several decades in jail for a gangland slaying - two of whom actually died in jail.

The court tore into the government because of the way FBI agents "coddled" a known mobster the bureau was trying to recruit as an informant, and who fingered Joseph Salvati, Peter Limone, Henry Tameleo and Louis Greco in the 1965 killing of Teddy Deegan:

We are frank to say that, here, the awards for wrongful incarceration are high enough to be troubling. But when we take into account the severe emotional trauma inflicted upon the scapegoats, we cannot say with any firm conviction that those awards are grossly disproportionate to the injuries sustained.

Complete ruling.