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A man who spent almost seven years in prison after a negligent fingerprint match falsely linked him to a police shooting, was awarded a $3.2 million settlement by the city of Boston in a wrongful conviction case.

Stephan Cowans, 35, spent 6 ½ years in a Boston prison before he was exonerated by DNA evidence in January 2004 with the help of the New England Innocence Project.

While imprisoned, Cowans claimed he contracted hepatitis C and was denied the chance to attend his mother''s funeral four months before he was freed. The $3.2 million settlement is believed to be one of the largest the city has ever awarded in a wrongful conviction case.

As part of the deal, Cowans has agreed to drop all claims against the Police Department, the city, and six law enforcement officers who falsely identified Cowans as the shooter. However, claims against the technicians who wrongly matched Cowans'' fingerprints to the shooters'' are not covered under the settlement.

In May 1997, a man shot police officer Gregory Gallagher during a struggle and fled the scene to a nearby home where he held the residents hostage. The shooter drank a glass of water before leaving the house, leaving a fingerprint on the glass—a print that was later matched to Cowans''.

In 1998, Cowans was sentenced to 35 to 50 years in prison for armed assault with intent to kill, home invasion, and other related charges.

In 2003 and 2004, defense attorneys for the Innocence Project ordered DNA testing on the sweatshirt and baseball hat the shooter had left at the scene of the crime. The DNA didn''t match Cowans''. Police reevaluated the fingerprint match and it was concluded that the print belonged to one of the people held hostage in the house.

The wrongful conviction led to the temporary closing of the city''s fingerprint unit, which was reopened only after an extensive overhaul, which includes a state-of-the-art facility and experienced analysts all with advanced training in forensics.