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Forty years too late, but the City of LaGrange is taking some responsibility for actions that ruined a man’s life.

The City of LaGrange has approved a settlement agreement for the wrongful imprisonment of Terry Lamar Talley, who was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault in 1981.

The LaGrange City Council signed off on the settlement on Tuesday, which provides $10,525,000 in total. The City of LaGrange is responsible for $5,250,000, with the remaining coming from insurers, The Hartford, Travelers and Argonaut.

Talley was convicted in Troup County Superior Court in connection with several sexual assault cases following an investigation by the LaGrange Police Department with assistance from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

At the time, Talley was believed to be connected to a series of related assaults committed by the same individual and was sentenced to life in prison.

With the help of the Georgia Innocence Project (GIP), Talley was exonerated and released from prison after 40 years in 2021.

GIP contacted the LaGrange Police Department in 2008, urging the department to look into the case, thinking that Talley may have been wrongfully convicted. LPD then began a review of the original cases, compiling all available information and cooperating fully in the effort to reexamine the evidence, including DNA testing that was not available at the time of the original investigation. 

During the case review, DNA samples from Talley and the sexual assault kit were submitted for testing. In 2009, it was determined that Talley did not provide the male DNA located in the rape kit performed in 1981. The district attorney’s office later agreed to vacate Talley’s rape conviction in 2013 and life imprisonment sentence in one of the cases after the rape kit proved he was not responsible.

LPD and GIP continued to review the five other sexual assaults, which ultimately led to Talley’s release in 2021.

During the council meeting on Tuesday evening, LaGrange Mayor Jim Arrington read a statement about the settlement agreement, urging the council to approve it.

The council unanimously approved the settlement.

The move settles the case for the city but does not end the case for the State of Georgia, which was not part of the settlement.