LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a $28.1 million judgment against Gage County and two law enforcement officials for a Nebraska case involving six people who were wrongfully convicted of murder.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to overturn the jury’s 2016 verdict in a ruling issued Monday.

The verdict was awarded to the group, known as the Beatrice Six, for their wrongful conviction in the 1985 rape and killing of 68-year-old Helen Wilson. They spent more than 75 years combined in prison until DNA evidence cleared them in 2008. The evidence instead pointed to an Oklahoma City man who died in 1992.

The lawsuit alleged that law enforcement officials recklessly strove to close the case despite contradictory evidence.