This Latino spent 27 years in prison despite being innocent. He will now receive $ 5 million: "There is not enough money in the banks to compensate for what they took from me"

Felipe Rodríguez's life took an unexpected turn when, at the age of 23, he went from aspiring New York police officer to a convicted prisoner for a murder he never committed.

Now, after spending 27 years in prison, he will be compensated with a millionaire figure: "I really don't think there is enough money in the banks of the United States to compensate for what they took from me," he lamented, however, in an exclusive interview with Noticias Telemundo.

In 1990, he was found guilty and sentenced to between 25 years and life in prison for the murder of Maureen McNeill, a 35-year-old mother brutally murdered in New York in 1987.

After spending 25 years in prison, the then governor of the state, Andrew Cuomo, commuted his sentence.

But it was not until two years later, in 2017, that Rodríguez was able to be released.

He then began a legal battle against the state of New York that this Monday concluded with a compensation of five million dollars for having spent half his life despite being innocent.

Felipe Rodríguez celebrates that his criminal record was eliminated in 2019.Felipe Rodríguez

His fight began 13 years ago when, while still in prison, he became involved in the Innocence Project in New York.

The organization verified that there was no physical evidence connecting him to the homicide.

In December 2019, a judge exonerated him of all charges upon verifying that there were errors and omissions in his case, and Rodríguez thus became a free man with no criminal record.

Despite his experience, the Hispanic assures that he lives in forgiveness.

He remarried and works as a cleaner in a New York hotel.

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“I think I still need to work

,” Rodríguez said when asked what he plans to do with the five million dollars he will receive in severance pay, because that is “a good example” for his children.

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His legal fight did not end in any case this Monday: now he is waiting for a lawsuit against the New York Police Department for damages to be resolved.

“I forgave everyone because doing so benefited me.

Hate and everything that is negative affects people,” she stated.

When Rodríguez entered prison, he left behind one of his children who was only three years old;

Now he has one more, and his future plans include having a daughter with his current wife, Karen Rodríguez: "We want to move to a quieter place and live our lives happily," the woman assured Noticias Telemundo.

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"Thank God these years we have built an important family unit and I think that has given him an impetus to continue," he added, "I don't think anyone can feel what he lived through."

Rodríguez says that despite the experience he lived through, he wants to convey to people who are still in prison or on death row for crimes they did not commit that "justice can be a reality, that they fight, that they never lose strength." .