By Bryn Stole Baltimore Sun
An East Baltimore man wrongfully convicted for a shooting he did
not commit will receive compensation from the state for the 19
years he spent locked up before being freed in December 2020.
Compensation for many more people freed from Maryland prisons
could follow soon once a recently approved change to state law
takes effect in July.
Maryland will pay just over $1.6 million to Melvin Thomas, who
was freed after spending nearly his entire adult life behind bars.
Maryland’s Board of Public Works approved the compensation,
which will be paid in a series of installments over the next five
years, on Wednesday morning. The total amounts to $84,805 for
each year Thomas wrongfully spent in prison.
Thomas declined to comment Wednesday through an attorney.
Others freed from Maryland prisons will have an easier path to
claim compensation beginning July 1, when the Walter Lomax Act
— passed unanimously by the General Assembly and signed by
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan earlier this month — goes into
effect. The act is named for an innocent Prince George’s County
man who spent nearly 40 years behind bars for a murder he didn’t
commit and then decades more fighting to receive compensation
for the injustice.
The change removes several hurdles that have prevented others
freed from prisons after their convictions were overturned from
claiming compensation, including by eliminating strict eligibility
rules that limit compensation only to people pardoned by the
governor for innocence or given a so-called “writ of actual
innocence” issued by a judge and approved by local prosecutors.
Critics have argued for years that the current system can be slow,
cumbersome, unfair and “doesn’t actually require the government
to compensate for anything,” said Shawn Armbrust, executive
director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.
The Board of Public Works, a three-person panel made up of the
governor, the state comptroller and state treasurer, currently
decides whether and how much to pay exonerees — while local
prosecutors can make it nearly impossible for wrongfully
convicted people to claim compensation by simply refusing to
certify innocence even if they can’t win a new conviction.
Thomas, like a number of other wrongfully convicted former
prisoners from Baltimore, was exonerated through a partnership
between a conviction integrity unit set up by Baltimore State’s
Attorney Marilyn Mosby and nonprofit legal groups that work
with some prisoners to prove their innocence. That partnership
also made it much easier for exonerees from Baltimore — and for
others from counties with similar programs — to qualify for
compensation through the current system.
At least 15 people wrongly convicted in Maryland have been
denied compensation because they couldn’t obtain a pardon from
the governor and local prosecutors refused to concede their
innocence, according to the Innocence Project.
Under the new law, anyone wrongfully convicted would be eligible
for compensation as long as prosecutors are unable to win a new
conviction at a retrial. An administrative law judge — not the
Board of Public Works — will then set a monetary award by
multiplying the state’s current median household income by the
number of years the individual spent incarcerated and the law sets
a quick timeline for delivering the first installment.
Armbrust said the current years-long wait for compensation in
Maryland makes it even harder for exonerated people to rebuild
their lives outside of prison and “adds insult to injury” after
having their freedom stolen by a false conviction.
The judge also can order other benefits, such as at least five years
of health insurance, up to five years of housing assistance and
help with education and vocational training. Exonerated
individuals who were given compensation by the state before 2005
will be given the opportunity to apply for additional compensation
under the new formulas. At least five exonerees will be able to
make claims under that provision, according to the Innocence
Project.
Thomas was freed after the man he allegedly shot outside an East
Baltimore rowhouse bar in 2001 spotted the actual shooter years
later at the Patapsco Flea Market in South Baltimore. The
shooting victim, who survived two gunshots to the face, recanted
his courtroom testimony that led to Thomas’ conviction and 65-
year prison sentence for attempted murder and conspiracy,
robbery and gun charges.