A man from Central New York died of lung cancer over the weekend just four months after receiving $7.5 million from the state for being wrongfully imprisoned for nine years.

Jerry Gristwood confirmed to The Post-Standard of Syracuse that his 48-year-old brother, Dan Gristwood of Pennellville, died Saturday at a hospital in Syracuse.

In May 2013, a state Court of Claims judge awarded Dan $5.5 million for being wrongfully convicted of trying to kill his wife. The decision was then appealed, but a state appeals court in Rochester upheld the ruling in July 2014.

By the time Dan received his payment in September, however, the award had increased to $7.5 million due to accruing interest.

The judge ruled that state troopers had coerced Gristwood into falsely confessing to attacking his wife with a hammer inside their suburban Syracuse home in 1996. According to Syracuse.com, officials interrogated Dan for 16 hours before he signed a false confession.

The real attacker was later identified as Mastho Davis after he confessed to the crime in 2003; Dan was released two years later.

Dan's wife, Christina, survived the attack with brain injury. She divorced him while he was still incarcerated and died last year.

Jerry described his brother as a chronic smoker who was diagnosed with lung cancer about five months ago, shortly before he received the money from the state. Once he was released, Dan married his new wife in August, he said.

"He didn't get a chance to enjoy things as much as he wanted, but he did get a little bit of enjoyment," Jerry told reporters.

During an 2013 interview with Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard, Dan admitted that he regretted the fact that four troopers who had questions him were ever punished.

"I don't have grudges against the state police," he said. "There are good state troopers, but then you always get the few (expletives) who don't want to do their jobs, just straight up have an attitude, thinking they're better than everybody else."

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