The Comptroller's Office of New York City announced that it has approved a settlement in the longstanding lawsuit of five men, known as the Central Park Five, whose 1989 convictions were overturned for the rape and beating of a female jogger.

"In my judgment, this settlement is a prudent and equitable solution for all parties to the lawsuit and closes a very difficult chapter in our city's history," the comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, said in a statement. "I would like to commend New York City's Law Department for their extensive efforts in reaching this settlement."

One of the plaintiff's lawyers said that the total settlement was $41 million, roughly $1 million for each year the five men spent in prison. One of the men served 13 years; the other four served roughly seven years.

The man who served 13 years will receive the largest amount the city has ever paid in any wrongful conviction case, according to The New York Times.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made no immediate comments after the ruling. He did comment on the matter when he was in town on Monday when asked about the trial. "I think that the moral issue is quite clear, and obviously was made very real by the court decisions in recent years, and an injustice was done. And we have a moral obligation to respond to that injustice," de Blasio said on Monday.

The agreement was reached by negotiations between the city's corporate counsel, Zachary Charter, along with the plaintiffs' lawyers.

A federal judge still must approve the decision.

The five black and Latino defendants were found guilty in 1989 of attacking a white woman who had been jogging in the park. The convictions were overturned in 2002 because of evidence that showed someone else committed the crime. 

A man who had been convicted of rape in an unrelated incident later confessed to the crimes; his DNA matched evidence from the Central Park Five case. The Wall Street Journal reported that the doctors working on the case claimed that he didn't act alone. 

The Central Park Five later sued claiming that the police had forced false confessions and key DNA evidence was deliberately ignored.