On April 2, we published pictures of Thomas Lee Goldstein, a former young marine who was released from jail after serving 24 years for a crime he didn't commit. The cause of his wrongful conviction was an unreliable jailhouse snitch and an eyewitness, both of whom subsequently recanted. Yesterday, Goldstein sued for damages.

Attorneys for Thomas Lee Goldstein, who spent 24 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, announced Wednesday that they had filed damage claims, alleging that police officers and prosecutors had committed egregious acts of misconduct that cost the Vietnam veteran the prime years of his life. "For the police to fabricate evidence and use perjured testimony to achieve their conviction" was an "egregious affront" to Goldstein and the Constitution that calls for compensation, said Ronald O. Kaye, Goldstein's attorney, at a Pasadena news conference.

Goldstein, 55, said he could never be compensated for the years lost to prison. "I was 31 years old. I never got married, I never had children, I never started my career. No human being should have to suffer what I went through," Goldstein said.

The road to freedom was a long one for Goldstein:

In recent years, five federal judges said Goldstein's constitutional rights had been violated at the trial, where he was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. Campbell's testimony was improperly influenced by police officers, the judges ruled. And the judges found that police and prosecutors had sat mute as longtime jailhouse informant Edward F. Fink — who said Goldstein confessed to him in a jail cell — lied when he testified that he had received no benefit for his testimony.

The complaint for damages includes two retired prosecutors, four retired policemen and two detectives as defendants, among others.