The former Amsterdam serial killer who was suing to get out of solitary confinement has reached a settlement in the case.  

Lemuel Smith had filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Rochester. Smith was sentenced to up to life in prison in 1978 for convictions in Schenectady County Court for kidnapping, robbery and rape. He killed a female corrections officer in 1981 and was placed in solitary confinement, where he remains to this day. He is currently incarcerated at Wende Correctional Facility in Erie County. 

His attorneys had sued on the grounds that the indefinite solitary confinement violated Smith’s constitutional rights including the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.  

The trial was scheduled to start Monday in U.S. District Court in Rochester. However, the trial was called off due to a settlement reached between the parties, according to a Friday entry in the federal court PACER document filing system. 

The notice says that a stipulation of discontinuance will be filed by March 8.  

Department of Corrections and Community Supervision spokesman Thomas Mailey said the department said that per the court’s instruction, both parties are working to finalize the agreement by that date. He had no further comment beyond that.  

His attorneys, Tracy Burnett and Jonathan Jeremias, released a statement on the agreement. 

“We are very pleased with today’s resolution and have achieved Lemuel’s goal of being removed from restrictive custody. This determination is long overdue but thankfully gives some closure to the decades of injustice our client endured,” they said in the statement. 

Specifics of the agreement were not disclosed. 

The Times Union first reported that the lawsuit had been settled.