By Luke Parker
Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE — A man wrongfully convicted of murder did not successfully prove that the Baltimore Police Department had falsified and violently coerced evidence before his 1992 trial, a federal jury decided earlier this month.
Clarence Shipley Jr. was convicted of robbing and killing 29-year-old Kevin Smith in the city’s Cherry Hill neighborhood. He spent the next 27 years in prison, all the while maintaining his innocence.
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After Shipley’s friends and family hired a retired homicide detective, it was discovered that the state’s case hinged on faulty testimony — unbeknownst to the defense, the prosecution’s star witness had implicated another man before Shipley — and the conviction was overturned in 2018.
Three years later, Shipley filed a federal lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department and nine officers once involved in his case, accusing them of violating his due process by failing to adequately investigate, failing to disclose leads and fabricating evidence. In addition to not disclosing the existence of another suspect, who died in 2005, the suit accused city authorities of threatening and assaulting the witness until he agreed to say Shipley was the killer.
Over time, the case was whittled down. When opening arguments began earlier this month, only three defendants remained in the case, not including the department. A federal judge then dropped two of those three officers as defendants during the 8-day trial.
On July 15 , jurors determined that Shipley’s fabricated evidence claim had not been proven “by a preponderance of the evidence” — a burden of proof in civil lawsuits finding that something more likely happened than not.
Neither Shipley’s attorney nor the Baltimore Police Department immediately responded to comment requests Monday afternoon.
The jury’s decision against Shipley came as the city prepares an eight-figure settlement in another wrongful conviction lawsuit.
Anthony Hall was found guilty in the 1991 murder of Gerald Dorsey — a conviction later found to be secured by police-coerced testimony — and spent 25 years in prison.
Like Shipley, Hall’s case was investigated by the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and overturned in 2023, city officials said.
A little more than two years later, Hall sued the city. Baltimore’s Board of Estimates will consider whether to settle the case for $11 million during its Aug. 5 meeting, about a month before his case is scheduled to open.
Hall was previously awarded more than $2 million by the State of Maryland.
Have a news tip? Contact Luke Parker at lparker@baltsun.com, 410-725-6214, or on X @lparkernews.
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