Walter Lomax was freed on December 13, 2006, after spending 39 years in prison for a murder that he did not commit.  Hours earlier, Baltimore Circuit judge Gale E. Rasin had granted Mr. Lomax's motion to reopen his long-closed case.  She then overturned his life prison term and resentenced him to time served.  The Baltimore state's attorney's office did not oppose the motion to reopen or the decision to release Mr. Lomax. 

Mr. Lomax was convicted of a convenience store robbery and killing that he could not have committed because his right arm was in a thick cast at the time.  He was convicted based solely on the testimony of five white witnesses who identified him as the killer, though none said anything about a cast.  As Judge Rasin acknolwedged at the Dec. 13 hearing, such cross-racial identification can be extremely unreliable. 

During his 39 years in prison, Mr. Lomax educated himself, became a writer and editor of a prison newsletter, and amassed dozens of certiricates of achievement and letters of support, some from politicians.  He was recommended for parole four times but kept behind bars by former Governor Parris N. Glendening's decision in 1995 not to parole any prisoners serving life sentences except those who were dying.  Judge Rasin's decision allowed for Mr. Lomax's release, but it did not exonerate him, and he remains a convicted murderer.  He will have to seek a pardon from the governor in order to clear his name and be eligible for compensation from the state.

Mr. Lomax's case was identified and investigated by Centurion Ministries, a New Jersey non-profit organziation that helps people it believes have been wrongly convicted.  Mr. Lomax is the 40th person that Centurion has helped free.  In Maryland, Mr. Lomax was represented by attorneys Larry Nathans and Booth Ripke.  The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project congratulates everyone involved in this wonderful victory.

To read the Baltimore Sun article on Mr. Lomax's release, click here.       

On December 7, 2006, Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich signed an executive order establishing the Maryland Forensic Sciences Advisory Board.  According to Governor Ehrlich, "the Board's primary goal is to ensure that forensic sciences are conducted in Maryland under the highest quality control procedures using the most modern equipment and technology."  The Board is also charged with addressing "the major challenges facing our crime labs today, including financing equipment upgrades, professional training, national accreditation and employee retention." 

The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project is disappointed in Governor Ehrlich's response to the crime lab problem in Maryland.  Maryland is still not in compliance with a federal law enacted in 2004, which requires independent crime lab oversight in order to make a state eligible for specific types of federal funding for crime labs.  Currently, Maryland's forensic labs operate without any mandatory standards for the scientific validity of their procedures, the quality of technician training or performance, or the quality of the equipment used for forensic analysis.  They oeprate without any licensing or inspection of the lab or lab work product, including DNA testing, blood testing, and gunshot residue testing — all evidence used to identify and convict violent ofenders.  Governor Ehrlich's executive order does not bring Maryland into compliance with federal law or mandate any quality assurance.  It also does not increase funding, which is desperately needed for recruitment, training, employee retention, and adequate facilities and equipment.     

On December 12, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project issued a joint press release with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender and the Maryland branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, criticizing Governor Ehrlich's approach as simply authorizing more study of the problems inherent in Maryland's crime labs without doing anything to fix them.  "Despite repeated calls for standards and independent enforcement, despite wrongful convictions based in part upon problematic crime lab evidence, and despite prosecutions jeopardized by poor forensics, Maryland has failed to address the real issues," said Cindy Boersma, Legislative Director for the ACLU of Maryland.  Added MAIP's Shawn Armbrust, "Governor Ehrlich has created a task force charged with reviewing the work of a task force." 

Crime labs that lack funding, oversight, and standards are more likely to produce erroneous evidence that is used to prosecute and convict the wrong people, allowing the guilty to remain in the community and pose a public danger while subjecting innocent people to the possibility of convictions for crimes they did not commit.  We at MAIP find it outrageous that Maryland is not even in compliance with federal standards regulating crime lab oversight.  We urge incoming Governor Martin O'Malley to reduce the risk of unreliable criminal convictions and boost needed federal funding for Maryland's crime labs by embracing a plan that actually reforms the system, rather than continuing to study it. 

As of December 14, 2006, the full text of the Executive Order has not yet been posted on the Governor's web site, but it should eventually be available by clicking here. 

On December 1, the Washington Post published a strong editorial calling on Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine to act expeditiously on the clemency requests of the "Norfolk Four," calling their convictions "one of the most disturbing potential miscarriages of justice [Virginia] has ever seen." The four are Derek Tice, Joseph Dick, Danial Williams and Eric Wilson, Navy sailors convicted of the 1997 gang-rape and murder of a woman based exclusively on their dubious confessions. Persuasive evidence shows that the confessions were coerced, and another man — whose DNA was found at the scene — has repeatedly confessed to being the lone assailant. In late November, a Virginia trial court judge threw out the conviction of Mr. Tice, finding that the police violated his constitutional rights when they interrogated him. Unfortunately, Mr. Tice is still subject to retrial unless the governor grants clemency or the Commonwealth decides not to try him again.