After 9,870 days behind bars for a murder that he did not commit, James Langhorne received an apology and financial compensation from the state of Maryland on Wednesday.

But the 51-year-old said he and other exonerees need more than money. They need support in making the difficult transition from prison to life on the outside.

“There’s not a lot of resources for people in my situation who come home,” Langhorne told members of the state Board of Public Works, who signed off on his compensation package.

Langhorne, who is diabetic, said he struggled to get health insurance.

Unlike those who are convicted of crimes and can anticipate when they’ll be released from prison, the process often moves very quickly for exonerees, Langhorne said.

“You’re let out. There’s no preparation, you didn’t know you were going to be released,” he said, adding that “of course you want to go home, you don’t want to stay in just because you don’t have resources.”

In 1998, Langhorne was sentenced in Baltimore Circuit Court to life in prison plus 20 years in the killing of Laurence Jones Jr., who had moved to the city with plans to further his education at Johns Hopkins University.

Jones was fatally shot on Nov. 20, 1993, while walking back to his home on Bank Street, between South Eden and South Spring streets in Fells Point, near the Perkins Homes housing community.

He was 24.

But until 1996, the case remained cold. That’s when a jailhouse informant who was seeking money came forward and alleged that Langhorne had admitted to robbing and killing a man.

Two years later, Langhorne was found guilty of first-degree murder.

In 2019, his attorney, Daniel Wright, brought the case to the attention of the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, which launched an investigation.

Citing unreliable and conflicting testimony, witness recantations and failures to disclose exculpatory evidence, prosecutors filed a motion to throw out the conviction, which Circuit Judge Michael A. DiPietro then granted.

Langhorne was released on Feb. 10 from the Roxbury Correctional Institution after serving almost 30 years in prison.

Speaking at a news conference days after his release, Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates described the prosecution as “one of the most amazing cases I’ve ever seen.”

“Truly, I have not a single shred of doubt in my mind that this young man, without a doubt, is innocent and should never have been in prison — ever," Bates said.

Under the state’s Walter Lomax Act, Langhorne was awarded about $2.75 million in compensation plus more than $99,000 in housing assistance.

He worries that some exonerees, even with money in hand, might still struggle adapting to living in the community and may end up committing crimes.

“It’s a wonderful thing that people are providing some financial gain, but it would mean nothing if you come home and you find yourself in such a dire situation that you feel the need to do something just to make it,” he said. “Then there’s a double loss.”

Langhorne’s remarks were met with a standing ovation from those at the meeting.

Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, a Democrat who chaired the meeting, said she noted Langhorne’s concerns. She offered an apology on behalf of the state.

“There are no words to express how deeply sorry we are for what was taken from you and for the failure of the justice system,” Miller said.

Langhorne and Miller had met privately earlier in the day, the lieutenant governor said. She recalled how Langhorne described being imprisoned as one trauma and his return to the community as another.

She expressed regret that Langhorne did not feel supported.

“We need to understand the challenges that individuals face, and our job as public servants is to remove those obstacles to make sure that when you come back, that you have the services you need,” Miller said. “I am really, really sorry to hear that you faced a situation that wasn’t there waiting for you as it should have been.”