Brown, Goldstein & Levy partner Neel Lalchandani was highlighted in Law360’s Pro Bono Spotlight after securing compensation for Tyrone Jones, a Baltimore man wrongfully convicted in a 1990s conspiracy to commit murder who spent a decade in prison for a crime he did not commit.
“These cases strike at the heart of our legal system,” Neel told Law360. “This is when you have just an abject failure of our system. So, as lawyers working within this system, I think it’s incumbent to do what little part we can to try and rectify those total failures.”
Earlier this year, in April, Mr. Jones was finally proven innocent in a Walter Lomax Act hearing before a Maryland Administrative Law Judge.
Neel, along with attorney Catalina Odio and former BGL attorney Michael Abrams, originally sought compensation for Mr. Jones in 2023 under the Walter Lomax Act, but was denied due to the fact that Mr. Jones’ conviction was considered a misdemeanor when he was charged in 1999.
Neel, along with the rest of the legal team, supported amendments to the Walter Lomax Act, which extended the applicant class to include convictions for conspiracy to commit felonies.
“I think it was a common sense fix,” Neel said in the article. “When the legislature passed the law… Nobody anticipated this gap in the law, and we were really heartened to see that they acted quickly and fixed the gap and made a couple other small tweaks to the law.”
Mr. Jones’ legal team then returned to court to prove Mr. Jones’s innocence.
Mr. Jones’ team of attorneys used private investigators to track down two new leads and alibi witnesses for Jones for events that had happened more than two decades ago, Law360 reported. Mr. Jones also recounted his experience being confined in prison. The team not only proved Mr. Jones’ innocence but presented evidence of the real perpetrator.
Read the full article from Law 360 here.
ABOUT NEEL LALCHANDANI
Neel Lalchandani represents individuals, nonprofits, and companies in a diverse array of civil rights and commercial matters. Among other victories for his clients, Neel has helped secure several of the largest payments in Maryland history for victims of police misconduct, including more than $80 million for innocent men imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. Learn more about Neel here.
ABOUT BROWN, GOLDSTEIN & LEVY
Founded in 1982, Brown, Goldstein & Levy is a law firm based in Baltimore, Maryland, with an office in Washington, D.C. The firm is nationally recognized in a wide variety of practice areas, including complex civil and commercial litigation, civil rights, health care, family law, and criminal defense. Above all else, Brown, Goldstein & Levy is a client-centered law firm that brings decades of experience and passionate, effective advocacy to your fight for justice.