SALISBURY, Md. - A Wicomico County Circuit Court Judge has exonerated 66 year old Grant Jones of Salisbury for a decades old rape conviction.
Prosecutors reopened the case months ago, after finding striking similarities in Jones' case with the case of David Veney. Veney was exonerated earlier this year.
Both men were convicted of raping Alice Arroyo in the 1990's. The accusations leveled by Arroyo and the injuries sustained by her were very similar in both cases.
Jones was sentenced to seven years in prison, and served about five years.
In granting the exoneration, Judge Karen Dean called this an "unusual situation" and said "it pains me that the system got this wrong," but Dean noted that pain is nothing compared to that of Jones.
Moments after his exoneration, Jones told WBOC he feels a weight has been lifted off of his shoulders.
"I've got to get used to the fact that I'm free now I guess you could say. I've been in jail for a long time, almost 35 years in my mind. That's where I've been locked up at, up in here," he said.
Prosecutors say with this exoneration, Jones is now eligible for financial compensation under the Walter Lomax Act. He could receive nearly $400,000.
Veney tells WBOC he has already received compensation, valued at just less than $1,000,000.
The State's Attorney's Office says this was the first prosecutor-led exoneration on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
State's Attorney Jamie Dykes became emotional in court while addressing Jones, and apologized to him.
"As we did in these cases, if we've gotten it wrong, we're willing to say we got it wrong, we're going to be willing to say we got it wrong," she told WBOC.
Jones' Attorney James McCollum, who also represented Veney noted that these two men are among many who have been wrongfully convicted.
"I think we do have a great legal system as the judge said today but I also think you have to look at every case very carefully, every detail because missing details like a physical description like weight and height are why people end up going to jail for something they didn't do," he said.