“A Baltimore man collected $1.6 million in compensation for wrongful conviction after his victim recanted. Then lawyers unearthed jail calls on which he ‘discussed paying off the victim as part of his bid for freedom,'” notes a prominent legal commentator. There are many similar cases in which this has occurred — a criminal conning the justice system into believing he is innocent. Sometimes, criminals bribe their victim to falsely say the crime never happened, by paying them part of what they recover in compensation for being wrongfully convicted
The Baltimore Banner reports:
Baltimore prosecutors sought to right a seemingly terrible wrong when they asked a judge to set convicted shooter Melvin Thomas free after his victim recanted.
Exonerated of the crime, Thomas, now 45, collected $1.6 million in wrongful conviction compensation from the state in 2021. But he wanted the city to pay, too, and filed a lawsuit against the Police Department and officers involved with the case.
That’s when his case took an unusual turn: City lawyers unearthed jail calls on which Thomas discussed paying off the victim as part of his bid for freedom.
“If done right, he [the victim] can blame the police and the prosecutor, right, to get me off and, and he can get paid for it,” Thomas said on a recorded line in 2015. After the discovery, Thomas’ attorneys last week withdrew his lawsuit.
It’s the latest example of several cases in the city raising potentially uncomfortable questions about exonerations: Are these men innocent and desperate for justice, or guilty and duping prosecutors? In four prior cases, attorneys working for the city alleged the freed men had fabricated evidence as they sought release.
