Baltimore city approves $11 million settlement to innocent man who spent 25 years in prison
The city of Baltimore's spending board unanimously approved a $11 million settlement for a man wrongfully convicted of a murder he spent decades trying to prove he didn't commit.
Anthony Hall spent 25 years in prison for the murder of Gerard Dorsey. Dorsey was killed on the evening of July 13, 1991, in the 600 block of North Brice Way.
Hall, who was 29 at the time of the murder, was working as a cement worker, when he was charged with shooting Dorsey. Hall had two small children at the time.
Throughout the trial and his time in prison, Hall maintained his innocence but was still convicted of second-degree murder and a handgun charge in 1992, based on the testimony of two eyewitnesses.
No physical evidence tied Hall to the murder.
In 2004, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project reopened Hall's case and interviewed the two eyewitnesses, Nancy Hill and Gerald Patterson, who both recanted their original statements, said The Baltimore Banner, a CBS News Baltimore partner.
In 2023, Hall was granted a new trial by Baltimore Cricut Judge Charles Peters. The Baltimore State's Attorney Office later dropped the case entirely.
Both Hill and Patterson said they were coerced into testifying against Hall, said the spending board's agenda.
Hall, who filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department in 2024, alleged that detectives Donald Licato, Frank Barlow, and Sgt. John Barrick forced the two witnesses into giving false statements at trial.
In the lawsuit, Licato and Barlow were also sued, as well as the estate of Barrick, who died in November 2023, according to court documents.
Hall also alleged that law enforcement failed to disclose evidence that would prove his innocence including statements. The lawsuit also claimed the Baltimore Police had a history of "using coercive techniques in interviews and interrogations to obtain confessions and false statements."
"$11 million is an enormous amount of money, but it is nothing compared to the 25 years this man lost," said Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen.
"This is why we've changed policing in Baltimore,' said Cohen.
The city' spending board contested the lawsuit but was denied according to the spending board agenda.
The settlement will be the second for Hall. In 2024, the Maryland Board of Public Works paid Hall $2.36 million plus attorney fees and housing benefits.
While in prison, Hall obtained his GED and was a part of a program where he trained the only successful service dog in the Veterans Service Dog Program but was told he could not be featured in a news article because he was a convicted murderer.
Governor Wes Moore issued an apology to Hall saying, "There is no amount of money, nor apologies, nor acknowledgment to truly be adequate to right the wrongs that happened to this gentleman's life."