Charges dropped in 1987 Baltimore murder case

Charges were dropped yesterday against a Baltimore man who spent 21 years in prison for a murder he has always said he didn’t commit. A Maryland judge granted James Owens, Jr., a new trial last year after DNA tests showed that biological material from the crime scene came from an unknown man – and not Owens or his co-defendant, James A. Thompson. Owens was freed around 5 p.m.

Owens is represented by Stephen B. Mercer. Thompson, who is represented by Suzanne Drouet at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender’s Innocence Project, is still facing a possible retrial. 

"You can't give me that time back," Owens told reporters outside the prison. "You can't give me that back. That's all I got to say."

Read the full story here

. (Baltimore Sun, 10/16/08)

The Maryland Office of the Public Defender’s Innocence Project, along with the Innocence Project and more than 40 other organizations worldwide, is a member of the

Innocence Network

.