Two Black men who were wrongfully accused in one of Boston’s most notorious murder cases have finally received restitution more than three decades later.

Alan Swanson and Willie Bennett, who were both falsely named as suspects in the 1989 killing of Carol Stuart, will receive a combined $150,000 settlement from the City of Boston. According to NBC, the announcement comes two years after Mayor Michelle Wu issued a formal apology for the harm the men endured.

Bennett will receive $100,000, and Swanson $50,000. City officials confirmed the payments on Tuesday, saying they are part of an effort to make amends for a case that heightened racial tensions across Boston and devastated the city’s Black community.

Carol Stuart, a pregnant white woman, was shot in the head after leaving a birthing class with her husband, Charles Stuart. She died the next day, though their baby was delivered by cesarean section and lived for 17 days. Charles Stuart claimed the couple had been carjacked by a Black man who shot them both. 

Police quickly turned to Boston’s predominantly Black neighborhoods, arresting Swanson first before clearing him and then taking Bennett into custody. Charles Stuart later identified Bennett as the shooter, but neither man was ever charged.

Eventually, investigators learned that Charles Stuart had orchestrated the murder of his wife. He died by suicide months later as the truth unraveled.

The case left a lasting scar on Boston, particularly in the city’s Black neighborhoods, where police conducted aggressive crackdowns in the search for suspects.

In 2023, Mayor Wu publicly apologized to the men, saying, “What was done to you was unjust, unfair, racist, and wrong.”

For Swanson and Bennett, this settlement marks a long-overdue acknowledgment of the pain they endured, and a step toward healing from one of Boston’s darkest chapters.