STATE'S ATTORNEY EXONERATES GRANT JONES AND DAVID VENEY

Wicomico County, MD - On August 31, 2023, Judge Karen Dean, Associate Judge of the Circuit Court for Wicomico County, Maryland, granted State's Attorney Jamie Dykes' request to vacate the 1993 attempted rape conviction of Grant Jones. This comes after the State's Attorney, earlier this year, formally acknowledged David Veney's innocence and supported his petition for compensation as a wrongfully convicted individual.

In 2022, the State's Attorney's Prosecution Integrity Unit opened an investigation into Mr. Veney's 1997 conviction. During the course of this investigation, prosecutors learned that the putative victim in that case had made materially identical allegations against an unrelated individual - Mr. Jones - three years prior.

After an exhaustive investigation, the Prosecution Integrity Unit concluded that both men were actually innocent - not only did these two men not commit the crimes for which they were convicted, but there exists no credible evidence to suggest that these crimes occurred at all.

State's Attorney Jamie Dykes said "Prosecutors have an obligation to do justice, always. Protecting the innocent requires integrity at every step of an investigation and prosecution, and in cases such as Mr. Veney's and Mr. Jones's, an openness to re-examining the facts when hindsight affords the clearest view."

During the hearing, the State's Attorney apologized to both men on behalf of the Office of the State's Attorney for Wicomico County and the State of Maryland. "Although nothing can give these men back the time they spent incarcerated," she said afterward, "it is my sincere wish that the State's formal recognition of their innocence and of the harm inflicted upon them brings them some measure of justice and closure."

These are the first two prosecutor-led exonerations on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

State's Attorney Dykes expressed her gratitude to everyone that played a role in the result today, including James McCollum, L. Ben Guiffrè, Dr. Geraldine Goertzen, Dr. Joyce Parsons, Elizabeth Ireland, Deborah Dickerson, Brendan Becker, and Bob Roswell, as well as to Senior Assistant State's Attorney Patrick Gilbert and Special Investigator Tracy Majors, who led the Prosecution Integrity Unit's investigation, and, most importantly, to David Veney and to Grant Jones.