Wrongfully imprisoned Maryland man who spent 32 years behind bars sues
former authorities
[July 25, 2025]
By BRIAN WITTE
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A Maryland man who was wrongly imprisoned for 32
years, including a decade on death row, for two killings he did not
commit is suing former law enforcement officials in a lawsuit announced
Thursday, though four of the five people named as defendants are
deceased.
John Huffington was pardoned by then-Gov. Larry Hogan in January 2023.
Hogan cited prosecutorial misconduct in granting a full innocence pardon
to Huffington in connection with a 1981 double slaying in Harford
County. A Maryland board approved $2.9 million in compensation for
Huffington later that year during Gov. Wes Moore's administration.
Huffington said in a statement Thursday that “it took many, many painful
years, but the truth eventually came out.” Just 18 at the time of his
arrest, he said neither of his parents ever got to see and understand
that his name had been cleared and he was set free.
"All of those years I spent behind bars damaged and strained my
relationships, cost me the ability to have a family of my own, cost me
the ability to be with my mother when she died, cost me precious time
with my father who was in his nineties and suffering from Alzheimer’s
when I finally was released,” he added.
Huffington, 62, always maintained his innocence. He was released from
Patuxent Institution in 2013 after serving 32 years of two life
sentences.
He was convicted twice in the killings known as the “Memorial Day
Murders.” Diane Becker was stabbed to death in her recreational vehicle,
while her 4-year-old son, who was inside, was not harmed. Joseph Hudson,
Becker’s boyfriend, was fatally shot and found a few miles (kilometers)
away. A second suspect in the slayings testified against Huffington, was
convicted of first-degree murder, and served 27 years.
Prosecutors relied on testimony that was later discredited about hair
found at the crime scene purportedly matching Huffington’s.
He appealed his first conviction in 1981. In 1983, a jury found him
guilty of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to death. Prosecutors
later commuted that sentence to two life terms.
Questions about evidence in the case arose when The Washington Post
uncovered an FBI report in 2011 that found the FBI agent who analyzed
hair evidence in Huffington’s case may not have used reliable science,
or even tested the hair at all. The report had been written in 1999, but
Harford County State’s Attorney Joseph Cassilly didn't provide it to
Huffington’s lawyers.
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In this photo provided by Romanucci & Blandin, John Huffington,
left, wipes away a tear during a press conference with
representatives of law firms Romanucci & Blandin and Hart McLaughlin
& Eldridge to announce a federal civil lawsuit he is filing after
serving more than three decades in prison for a wrongful conviction
in Baltimore, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (Romanucci & Blandin via AP)
A Frederick County judge vacated Huffington’s convictions and
ordered a new trial in 2013 after Huffington presented new evidence
using DNA testing that was not available during his earlier trials.
When the hair evidence was tested for DNA more than 30 years later,
the results showed it was not Huffington’s hair.
Maryland’s highest court unanimously voted to disbar Cassilly in
2021. The court found he withheld exculpatory evidence in the 1981
double murder and lied about it in the following years.
Cassilly, who maintained he did nothing wrong, retired in 2019. He
died in January.
His brother, Bob Cassilly, who is now the Harford County executive,
said in a statement that his brother was a decorated war hero who
was injured while serving his country and served as the county's
state's attorney for 36 years while in a wheelchair.
“Joe cannot defend himself in this decades-old matter because he is
now deceased, as are the other named defendants, except for one who
is almost 80,” Cassilly said. “Harford County government, in which I
currently serve as county executive, has no role in this case -- the
county was never the defendants’ employer."
Huffington also is suing the assistant state’s attorney on his case,
Gerard Comen, the Harford County government, and the county
sheriff’s office detectives, David Saneman, William Van Horn and
Wesley J. Picha. All but Saneman are now dead, according to the
lawsuit filed July 15 in federal court in Baltimore.
Saneman told The Washington Post on Wednesday he had not seen or
heard of the lawsuit and declined to comment.
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