State legal experts discuss exactly how wrongful convictions cases are processed in Maryland, with county officials highlighting that “there’s not a single county actor that is involved in this” process, despite the State shifting 50 percent of the cost to counties. This shift came last session along with a number of other state costs to counties, as the General Assembly sought to once again correct for perennial gaps in state revenue.

During the 2025 MACo Winter Conference, an impressive panel of legal experts came together to discuss the Walter Lomax Act. This conversation covered where the cases start, how they are weighed, and the array of outcomes that can materialize. As this is fully a state process, experts from state agencies anchored the beginning of the panel, including Janee A. Fountain from the the Office of the Attorney General, Judge Syeetah Hampton-EL from the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings, and Wicomico State’s Attorney Jamie Dykes. Weston Young, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for Worcester County, sat on the panel to share the county perspective and legal process they are trying to navigate with an existing case that could soon bring a significant cost to Worcester County residents.

To begin the session, Assistant Attorney General (AAG) Fountain explained the history of the Walter Lomax Act and its impact on the state. She shared that changes made in 2017 did three primary things for the erroneous convictions process:

• made compensation mandatory
• established a formula for compensation
• expanded available benefits

According to AAG Fountain’s presentation, since these changes went into effect there have been 40 cases filed and 18 that have resulted in financial compensation between 2021 and 2025, with half of those payments between $1M – $3M per exoneree.

Judge Hampton-El shared in her remarks after AAG Fountain that the process for gaining compensation is not particularly easy, with the petitioner needing to prove by clear and convincing evidence that they did not commit the crime. State’s Attorney Dykes further outlined some of that process by walking audience members through three cases they have had in Wicomico County since the passage of the expansions in 2017 including:

• State v. David Veney – $825,470.54
• State v. Grant Jones – $436,000.00
• State v. Tavon Tull – $582,983.80

Dykes went on to comment that she is also a taxpayer and well aware of what these changes mean for residents like her who come from small counties.

CAO Weston Young reiterated those concerns, pointing out that all 23 counties and Baltimore City support compensating individuals who have been wrongfully convicted but that this shift is in a long line of others that the state has been making where they are simply asking counties to pay state bills because state revenue is not sufficient.

He reiterated as well that this shift is uniquely problematic because it is inherently unpredictable which seriously complicates government fiscal planning with taxpayer funds. He mentioned as well that when it comes to balancing the state budget, which has in part increasingly been done on county revenue, this particular cost shift can not be booked as state revenue because the number and type of cases can not be anticipated. CAO Young questioned whether the shift was made because the state anticipates a significant increase in these types of cases due to various state employees that may have mad errors on many cases over a number of years, potentially leading to hundreds of more settlements.

A Maryland Matters article shared another perspective from Wes Adams, a former Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney who is now the county attorney for Charles County.

“There’s not a single county actor that’s involved in this,” said Wes Adams.

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