Georgetown students help Md. man get released from prison after 27 years

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — After 27 years behind bars for a murder he said he didn’t commit, a Baltimore man was finally freed.

This was thanks in part to students and faculty at Georgetown University. 

Kenneth Bond and his lawyers said another look at the evidence proves his innocence, but exoneration is still another step away after he was released under Maryland’s Juvenile Restoration Act.

“When I was released, you know, it was like amazing. It was like a living dream,” Bond said.

Now 43, he was only 16 when he was convicted of murdering another man at a bus stop.

“I never was a killer. I’ve never taken a life,” Bond said.

He grew up in prison, not knowing if he’d ever get out.

“It’s a hard thing waking up every morning and having no hope for the future. No hope to ever be free from this subjugation that you feel,” Bond said.

In prison, he took classes with professor Marc Howard, who took on his case as part of the Making an Exoneree program at Georgetown University.

“Our students thoroughly reinvestigated his case and found overwhelming evidence of his innocence,” Howard said.

His students put together a documentary in 2018, interviewing the witness who was a large reason why Bond was convicted.

“The first trial, second trial, I was never 100% sure that Kenneth Bond was the person I saw that evening,” said Ahmad Williams.

“The second part was a form of ballistics evidence that is completely discredited, that is now considered junk science and wouldn’t even be admissible at trial,” Howard said.

Howard is representing him along with Cooley LLP law firm and the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.

For now, Bond is living with his grandmother and adapting to life on the outside.

“Just enjoying what it is to live life, you know, living a fully present life in every moment,” Bond said. “You know, I’m trying to be engaging and to enjoy because really, it could be taken away from you any day.”

Just four days after being released, he was in class at the University of Baltimore.

He was close to getting his bachelor’s degree in psychology and plans to pursue a master’s.

Another man who recently had his murder conviction overturned in October now works for Georgetown with its Prisons and Justice Initiative. Howard said the same detective that worked on Syed’s case worked on Bond’s.

They’re working to get Bond exonerated and compensated.

“If there’s ever a case calling for compensation, for unjust suffering on a wrongful conviction, this is it,” Howard said. “So I’m excited to see Kenneth free, but I really look forward to seeing him made whole.”

Howard sais the Making an Exoneree program has taken 25 cases over the last five years — five per year. Bond is now the fifth person to be released.

“That’s now between the five of them, 134 years of wrongful convictions… in part thanks to our program,” Howard said.

“I appreciate all the help that everybody who worked on my case provided,” Bond said.