Former Maryland Death Row Prisoner Exonerated After 40 Years

John Huffington (pic­tured) has been exon­er­at­ed of all the charges that sent him to death row over 40 years after his ini­tial wrong­ful con­vic­tion. On January 13, 2023, out­go­ing Maryland Governor Larry Hogan grant­ed a full par­don to Huffington, stat­ing that evi­dence con­clu­sive­ly showed that his ​“con­vic­tions were in error.”

After many appeals and two death sen­tences, Huffington even­tu­al­ly entered an ​“Alford Plea” in 2017, which led to a reduced sen­tence and even­tu­al­ly his release. This type of plea is used when a defen­dant main­tains their inno­cence but con­cedes that exist­ing evi­dence might result in their being found guilty. Without more, DPIC has not includ­ed such cas­es in its Innocence List because the under­ly­ing con­vic­tion stands. In this case, how­ev­er, the governor’s full par­don based on wrong­ful con­vic­tions wipes away that deter­mi­na­tion of guilt. Huffington is the 191^st death row pris­on­er to be exon­er­at­ed since 1973.

Joseph Cassilly, the for­mer pros­e­cu­tor in Huffington’s case, was dis­barred in 2021 for his actions in this and oth­er cas­es. In Huffington’s case, hair found at the scene of the crime was iden­ti­fied using a dis­cred­it­ed method that false­ly con­clud­ed it was micro­scop­i­cal­ly iden­ti­cal to Huffington’s hair. The FBI and the Department of Justice reviewed Huffington’s case and deter­mined that the foren­sic evi­dence was sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly inac­cu­rate. Cassilly, how­ev­er, with­held this excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence from Huffington’s attorneys.

Attorneys from the Ropes & Gray law firm rep­re­sent­ed Huffington on a pro bono basis for more than 30 years. When the par­don was final­ly grant­ed, Huffington stat­ed, ​“I have fought for over 40 years for this day, and I feel a deep sense of clo­sure and vin­di­ca­tion. This par­don offi­cial­ly acknowl­edges that I was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and impris­oned for crimes I never committed.”