Misplaced court file means more waiting for two Maryland men
08.22.07
A Maryland man convicted of murder in 1988 will wait two more weeks for proceedings to begin in his new trial because court officials have misplaced his file, they announced yesterday. James Owens has been granted a new murder trial after DNA testing secured by the Maryland Office of the Public Defender Innocence Project showed that evidence at the crime scene came from a man who was not Owens or his co-defendant. His co-defendant, James Thompson, is still waiting for a court to rule on his appeal for a new trial.
“He’s been frustrated for more than a year,” Owens’ attorney Stephen Mercer said. “He’s been frustrated for 20 years, because he was behind bars when he was innocent. I’m frustrated this matter has defied resolution in the face of the DNA evidence.”
Read the full story here
. (Baltimore Examiner, 08/22/07)
The Maryland Office of the Public Defender’s Innocence Project, along with more than 30 other organizations, is a member of the
Innocence Network
.
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