482 JOINT RESOLUTIONS

tax structure of the State, with instructions to report back to the
General Assembly on its findings and recommendations at the earliest
possible date on or after the first Wednesday in January, 1963.

Approved March 23, 1962.

No. 2
(Senate Joint Resolution 2)

Senate Joint Resolution requesting the Board of Public Works to
provide compensation to Horace Alexander Spriggs.

The members of the General Assembly of Maryland have con-
sidered the unfortunate imprisonment of Horace Alexander Spriggs
and believe that some compensation should be made to him for the
time he was imprisoned.

Horace A. Spriggs was arrested on August 8, 1957, on the com-
plaint of one John Ford, who charged Mr. Spriggs with perpetrating
a robbery upon him the preceding day. Horace A Spriggs was tried
in the Criminal Court of Baltimore City on August 19, 1957, and
found guilty. He was sentenced to serve nine years in the Maryland
State Penitentiary. Rumors persisted in the neighborhood after the
arrest and conviction of Mr. Spriggs that the crime had actually been
committed by two men named Byrd and Fields, and that Spriggs was
innocent. Mr. Spriggs attempted to provide this information to
various State officials to no avail. Finally, in June of 1960, a
Sergeant of the Baltimore City Police Department took an interest in
the case and on his own time investigated the matter.

Mr. Byrd was located in confinement and readily confessed the
crime, also implicating Fields. Fields was placed in a line-up and
immediately identified by the victim, Ford. At the preliminary
hearing in Western Police Court and later at the trial before Judge
Prendergast, Ford testified that he was mistaken in his prior identi-
fication of Horace Spriggs. Following Byrd's conviction, a Petition
for Pardon was filed with Governor Tawes. A pardon was granted
to Horace Spriggs and he was released from prison after serving
three years, one month and seventeen days for a crime in which he
had no part.

Horace Spriggs was born August 23, 1923, in Bel Air, Maryland.
He attended school until the fifth grade in Baltimore City. He was
employed as a truck driver for John Matricciani at the time of his
arrest. He earned $60. 00 a week. Prior to this employment, Spriggs
was employed by the Continental Construction Company as a pipe-
fitter-laborer earning $84. 00 a week.

EXPLANATION: Italics indicate new matter added to existing law.

[Brackets] indicate matter stricken from existing law.
CAPITALS indicate amendments to bill.
Strike out indicates matter stricken out of bill.