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 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…

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…