After 13 years in prison for first-degree murder, a Baltimore man walked free Tuesday afternoon as the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office joined his defense team in asking for his exoneration.
State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby formally apologized at a news conference to Lamar Johnson and his family for what her office now believes was his wrongful conviction.
The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, which investigates suspected wrongful convictions, began looking into Johnson’s case in 2010. Last year, the project presenting its findings to the state’s attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit — the first of its kind in Maryland — which, after its own investigation, agreed that Johnson was innocent.
“The public must know that justice is the only barometer of success,” Mosby said.