Marshall Metz had served five years of a life sentence for murdering his wife when his stepson Jimmy Trout got a startling message from Maryland's automated victim-notification service: "This e-mail is to inform you that Marshall Metz has been released from custody." [...] Metz had died. The message Trout received was the one a contractor has routinely sent for years to registered victims of deceased Maryland inmates on behalf of the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The company says it sends tens of millions of notifications annually, by phone, email, direct mail and text message, through a system called VINE, for Victim Information and Notification Everyday. The computerized VINE system works by regularly checking the offender status codes that public agencies enter into their own computer systems. [...] most of the company's customers instruct VINE to send generic messages stating that the offender's custody status has changed, and to contact the agency for more information, Davis said. Shields said the agency's Victim Services Unit tried to call Trout that day to clarify Metz's status, per department policy, but couldn't leave a message on the family's home phone.
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