Maryland just yanked county governments out of the front line of its wrongful conviction payouts, clearing a key obstacle for exonerees trying to get compensated after years behind bars. The move is especially crucial for men like Douglass Haynie, who served roughly 32 years in prison before his 2025 release, and is now pursuing relief under the Walter Lomax Act.
What lawmakers changed
House Bill 1605 wipes out the part of state law that had forced county governments to cover half of the compensation awarded under the Walter Lomax Act. That repeal restores the state as the primary payer and sharply limits one of the main reasons counties have been jumping into compensation cases in the first place. According to the Maryland General Assembly, the bill deletes the cost-sharing subsection and carries an effective date of Oct. 1.
Haynie's case upended
Douglass Haynie was convicted in 1993 in Worcester County, then later sought compensation after prosecutors determined that key ballistics testimony at his trial was unreliable and dropped the charges. He walked out of prison in 2025. As reported by The Baltimore Banner, Worcester County commissioners brought in outside attorneys, and an administrative law judge allowed the county to intervene in Haynie’s petition, turning what should have been a straightforward bid for compensation into a far more tangled fight.
Forensics scandal that set this in motion
At the heart of the controversy is the work of Joseph Kopera, a former state firearms and tool marks examiner, later found to have falsified his credentials and, in 2019 reviews, to have forged initials on some lab reports. The Washington Post reported that those revelations triggered a statewide review of thousands of Kopera case files and have been central to multiple innocence claims and wrongful conviction compensation petitions.
County leaders cry foul
County officials have been fuming ever since a 2025 budget change shifted half of wrongful conviction payouts onto counties, arguing the arrangement was fundamentally unfair. Local governments do not prosecute cases or sign off on exonerations, they pointed out, and they cannot realistically budget for sudden, multimillion-dollar awards. Conduit Street (MACo) and county leaders warned that the cost shift would saddle local taxpayers with unpredictable liabilities and pressed lawmakers to roll it back.
Voices on both sides
Haynie’s attorney, Kristen Mack, told The Baltimore Banner that stripping out counties’ automatic financial stake matters because it removes the incentive for local governments to act like insurance companies and fight compensation cases. Worcester County commission president Ted Elder has countered that compensation should indeed be paid by the state and has called last-minute changes to the measure ethically troubling.
Legal implications
The Walter Lomax Act spells out how administrative law judges decide who qualifies for compensation and how the Board of Public Works approves and pays out awards. It includes formulas that tie payments to Maryland’s median household income and lays out possible additional benefits such as housing and health care. Under the statute and its implementing rules, procedural questions like who is allowed to intervene in a petition, who ultimately pays the award, and whether orders apply retroactively can all shape how quickly exonerees receive money and services under the law, as described in the Walter Lomax Act materials on the General Assembly site.
What happens next
The repeal contained in HB1605 has been transmitted to the governor. If signed, it will take effect Oct. 1, 2026, and eliminate the county cost-sharing requirement going forward. Until then, Haynie has a separate fight on his hands: he has asked Baltimore Circuit Court to block Worcester County’s intervention, so the outcome of his compensation petition will continue to hinge on both the evolving statute and the local litigation still playing out.
