MD Apologizes, Pays $340K To Man Wrongfully Jailed For 5 Years: Report

ANNAPOLIS, MD — A Maryland man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and assault will be compensated by the state for the five years he spent in prison, according to multiple reports.

The Maryland Board of Public Works, chaired by Gov. Wes Moore, approved a $340,000 settlement for Demetrius Smith, who was released from prison in 2013 after he was wrongfully convicted in 2008, the Associated Press reported.

“We’re here today more than 10 years after he was released from incarceration, providing Mr. Smith with long overdue justice that he was deprived of, an apology from the state of Maryland that until today he’s never received,” Moore told Smith at the hearing, according to the AP.

Following the vote, the room gave Smith a standing ovation, the Baltimore Banner reported.

Smith was arrested in 2008 after police found 36-year-old Robert Long shot and killed near a park in Southwest Baltimore. Police relied on testimony from a jailhouse informant and a woman who later recanted, prompting a judge to say it was “probably the thinnest case I’d ever seen," reports said.

While out on bail, Smith was arrested again for assault and sent to jail to await trial, according to the Banner.

In January 2010, Smith went to trial for Long's murder. The jury found Smith guilty and he was sentenced to life plus 18 years. According to ProPublica, Smith told the judge, “They know I didn’t do this.”

A year after the murder trial, he entered an Alford plea for the assault charge while still maintaining his innocence, reports said.

In 2011, the Maryland U.S. attorney’s office charged the person actually responsible for the murder and Smith’s innocence was proven, the AP reported. Smith spent another year and a half in prison, Moore said Wednesday, and it wasn't until 2012 that the state dropped Smith's murder conviction.

In 2013, Smith petitioned the court to revisit his Alford plea for the assault charge, the AP reported. His sentence was modified to time served, plus three years probation, and later reduced to probation.