Maryland apologizes to Demetrius Smith, who was wrongly convicted of murder

Eric Simmons (left) and Demetrius Smith, who were found innocent after spending years in prison for crimes they did not commit in Maryland, testify before state lawmakers for legislation to address how the wrongly incarcerated should be compensated by the state during a hearing on Feb. 26, 2020, in Annapolis, Md.

Brian Witte/AP

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A man wrongly convicted of two separate violent crimes will be compensated by the state of Maryland after spending years behind bars, including over a year after he had been proven innocent.

A Maryland board approved more than $340,000 for a settlement on Wednesday in compensation for Demetrius Smith who was wrongly convicted of murder and first-degree assault and spent more than five years in prison.

Gov. Wes Moore, who chairs the three-member Board of Public Works, apologized to Smith before the board approved the settlement, noting that it’s been more than a decade since his release in 2013.

“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, who attended the hearing in person.

Smith was 25 in 2008 when he was wrongfully charged with murder.

Gov. Moore noted that at Smith’s bail hearing, the judge said the case before him was “probably the thinnest case” he had ever seen. But, Moore said, “the prosecution was determined to press forward, relying on testimony from a witness who was later found to have not even been at the scene of the crime.”

Less than two months after his arrest,…