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.
Hell it doesn’t even seem like that much money if we consider lost wages, employment opportunities lost, 25k of it is going to legal fees, etc. The average salary in Baltimore is about 75k (5 years is 375k) and a median salary of 54k (5 years is 270k). Like 340k just seems like a bare minimum for stripping someone of their freedom for 5 years and the untold effects this will have on his future employment opportunities. A fucking bot is going ditch his application if he answers yes to “have you ever been arrested” question, hell that doesn’t even speak about the having to explain the 5 year gap on your resume.