Two brothers wrongly convicted for the Dec. 24, 1991, abduction, rape and murder of Dana Ireland have filed a federal lawsuit claiming their civil rights were violated by Hawaii County and its police department.

The lawsuit seeks financial compensation.

Albert “Ian” and Shawn Schweitzer were 20 and 16, respectively, when Ireland, a 23-year-old Virginia woman who had recently graduated from college, was found badly beaten and sexually assaulted on a fishing trail in lower Puna. She died shortly after midnight Christmas Day 1991.

Falsely implicated by another defendant, Frank Pauline — who also was convicted and since murdered in prison — Ian Schweitzer, now 53, spent 26 years in prison before being exonerated in 2023.

After his older brother was sentenced to life in prison, Shawn Schweitzer took a plea deal for manslaughter that allowed him to leave prison with time served.

DNA recovered from Ireland’s body identifies the man who actually kidnapped, raped and murdered her as Albert Lauro Jr. of Hawaiian Paradise Park. Lauro committed suicide last year after police questioned and released him.

No DNA matching either Schweitzer brother or Pauline was found on Ireland or at the scene.

“My family and the Ireland family are all victims of this terrible injustice” Ian Schweitzer said in a statement. “My brother and I have been clear since day one that we had nothing to do with this terrible crime. For all of our sakes, the real perpetrator should have been arrested, the Ireland family should have gotten justice, and me and my family should have been left to live our lives in peace.”

According to William Harrison, Ian Schweitzer’s attorney, “There is no sum of money that can compensate them.”

“But the law says that … you can have a jury of your peers determine what that’s worth. And that’s what we will be doing in this case,” Harrison told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.