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Recent Development: Smallwood V. State: A Writ Of Actual Innocence Is Not Available To Convicted Defendants Who Are Guilty Of Their Crime, Even If They Are Deemed Not Criminally Responsible, Andrew Siske
University of Baltimore Law Forum
The Court of Appeals of Maryland held that convicted defendants must allege that they did not actually commit the crime resulting in their conviction to be eligible to petition for a writ of actual innocence under section 8-301 of Criminal Procedure Article of the Maryland Code. Smallwood v. State, 451 Md. 290, 323, 152 A.3d 776, 795 (2017). Additionally, the court ruled that a claim of not criminally responsible is not equivalent to an assertion of actual innocence as required by the court's interpretation of the actual innocence statute. Id.
Dameron Smallwood ("Smallwood") was physically and verbally abused by his …