STORY: "Former Hagerstown man seeks to have conviction overturned," by reporter Don Aines, published in the Herald-Mail on March 12, 2012.
GIST: "A man serving 45 years in prison for a 2004 shooting in Hagerstown was in Washington County Circuit Court again Monday, this time seeking to have his conviction overturned because the state’s ballistics expert in his trial had false credentials.........Blankumsee has now filed a petition for a writ of actual innocence with the circuit court due to the testimony of Joseph Kopera, his attorney Bernard W. Semler II said. Kopera, who was head of the Maryland State Police firearms unit, committed suicide in 2007 after it was discovered that he falsified his credentials, according to a 2007 published report in the Baltimore Sun. Under Maryland law, a person convicted of a crime can file a writ of actual innocence if evidence is discovered that “creates a substantial or significant possibility that the result may have been different.” Kopera’s death came weeks after the Innocence Project, a group of lawyers looking into cases of defendants they believed were wrongfully convicted, raised questions about his resume, including degrees he had not earned, the Sun reported."

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