New Haven's Board of Alders Finance Committee unanimously backed a proposal Monday to authorize up to $17.5 million in bonds to help cover a $16.5 million settlement with Adam Carmon, a New Haven man who spent nearly three decades in prison before a judge overturned his murder conviction. The vote sends the bonding request to the full Board of Alders for a final decision in the coming weeks, marking the third wrongful-conviction settlement the city has had to fund this year.
A Case Decades in the Making
Carmon was convicted of murder in New Haven in 1995, according to the Yale Daily News, and remained behind bars until a judge overturned the conviction in 2022. The judge found that new evidence, along with evidence previously suppressed by officers, cast doubt on the original verdict, per the same report. Carmon was released from prison in June 2023 after a state judge vacated his conviction and dismissed his case entirely, according to the New Haven Independent.
Before the city settlement took shape, the state had already agreed to pay Carmon a $7.9 million wrongful-conviction compensation award, the Independent reports. Mayor Justin Elicker then announced on Oct. 22 that the city had agreed to pay Carmon $16.5 million to settle his federal civil-rights lawsuit, and the city's Litigation Settlement Committee approved that settlement on Oct. 28, contingent on the Board of Alders signing off on the borrowing. A statement from Elicker's office said the administration would submit the proposed bonding amount to the alders for review before any bonding moves forward.
The Price Tag of Borrowing
A drafted debt-service impact statement estimated that borrowing the full $17.5 million could ultimately cost the city $26.25 million over the next 20 years, the Independent reports, with roughly $8.75 million of that total representing bond interest paid over two decades. City budget officials included an additional $1 million in the bond amount to cover potential issuance costs, according to the Yale Daily News. Fitch Ratings assigned New Haven a credit rating of A-minus in September, per the same report.
Alder Adam Marchand framed the city's position bluntly, saying the settlement agreement has already been made and the remaining question is how to pay for it. “The settlement agreement has been made, and now it's really just a question of figuring out how to pay for it,” he said, adding that New Haven has made a commitment it must fulfill. Marchand also noted that borrowing to pay for something costs more over the long term.
Three Ways to Pay
New Haven budget officials described three possible funding mechanisms under consideration: issuing full-amount bonds, taking out short-term bank borrowing, or reallocating money that had already been bonded for other purposes. The finance committee's proposal would authorize budget officials to choose between bond issuance and short-term bank borrowing depending on outside conditions such as the bond market, the Yale Daily News reports.
City Controller Michael Gormany suggested short-term bank borrowing might offer more favorable rates than going straight to the bond market, and said using capital-project funds would be a last resort, since doing so would force planned projects to pause. Gormany also said settlements are typically paid out in a lump sum, and noted that the state has no program to offset settlement costs like these. Acting budget director Ron Gizzi said the city will likely borrow from banks first and issue bonds later, and suggested New Haven may reach a bank borrowing agreement with JPMorgan, Webster and M&T as soon as late December.
Lingering Questions Over Alternatives
Alder Anna Festa asked whether settlement payments could be spread over a longer period or borrowed from the state instead, while Marchand questioned whether the city could impose a special taxpayer levy or skip a capital budget cycle altogether. Gizzi responded that a special taxpayer levy could be an option for future payouts, though some projects, including school maintenance improvements, could not be postponed to the next year. City budget officials said they did not consider a special taxpayer levy as a funding option for Carmon's settlement specifically.
Marchand warned that reallocating already-borrowed capital-project money would eventually need to be replenished, and said delaying some projects could help the city avoid debt-service issues down the line. The New Haven administration is taking a hard look at the upcoming capital budget cycle as it weighs these tradeoffs, according to the Yale Daily News.
Part of a Costlier Pattern
Carmon's case is the third wrongful-conviction settlement New Haven has grappled with this year. The city separately agreed to pay Vernon Horn and Marquis Jackson a combined $30.5 million, and the Board of Alders approved $27 million in borrowing in October to cover the city's share of those payouts, according to the Independent. Horn and Jackson had spent 17 and 19 years in prison, respectively, before being exonerated in 2018, and Connecticut's Judiciary Committee agreed in February 2025 to pay them wrongful-conviction awards of roughly $4.8 million and $5.3 million.
New Haven is also challenging a federal jury's decision to award $38 million to Stefon Morant in a separate wrongful-conviction case, a figure a Hartford jury returned in May, per the Independent. The mounting costs across these cases have pushed city officials to weigh unconventional financing options even as they acknowledge the settlements themselves are not up for debate.
