Del. Clarence Davis urged a House committee in Annapolis yesterday to "scratch the surface of justice" and pay $7.5 million to a Maryland man who was wrongly convicted of murder.
Davis, a Baltimore Democrat, sponsored a bill that would direct Gov. Parris N. Glendening to budget $1 million for each of the years Anthony Gray Jr. spent behind bars.
Gray, 31, was released from prison last month after investigators acknowledged that no evidence linked him to the 1991 murder and rape of a Chesapeake Beach woman.
As much as the bill is an attempt to deliver some measure of justice to the Calvert County man, Davis told the committee it would also serve as a message to blacks across the state -- who view Gray's conviction as the realization of their worst nightmares.
"African-American mothers and fathers live in fear every day that our children will be pulled over, and wind up in exactly the same straits that this young man did," Davis said, his hand on Gray's shoulder.
"You and I have a responsibility to him, and also to the people of Maryland, to let them know we will not allow this to become a totalitarian state, a racist state, where police and prosecutors can do whatever they want."
As Gray sat quietly, Davis recounted his story. The delegate described the grisly stabbing and rape of Linda May Pellicano that stunned the community of Chesapeake Beach. He told of Gray's arrest and interrogation.
He explained how the borderline retarded man, with no attorney present, confessed to the crime because investigators told him if he did not, he would face the death penalty.
Davis told committee members how Gray was released last month, nearly eight years after his conviction. Physical evidence gathered at the crime scene indicated that someone else was responsible for the woman's rape and killing. Fingerprints and DNA evidence recovered at the scene did not belong to Gray, Davis said.
"This was his life that was taken," Sherron Offer, an assistant to the attorney who represents Gray, said after the hearing. "He's just asking for the state of Maryland to send a message that it was wrong." Gray was advised not to comment.
In two prior cases, the state has compensated people who were wrongfully convicted. Kirk Bloodworth of Cambridge was awarded $300,000 after serving nine years, including time on death row, for a killing he did not commit. Another man, Leslie A. Vass of Baltimore, was awarded $250,000 after prosecutors acknowledged he had served 10 years in prison for an armed robbery he did not commit.
Committee members noted that, in those cases, the state's Board of Public Works paid out the money, not the legislature. But Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, a Baltimore Democrat, said that the board is allowed only to pay for "actual damages."
In Gray's case, Davis said, that would probably be attorneys' fees, but little else.
Pub Date: 3/25/99