Carjacker in Silver Spring a Repeat Offender

The victim in this case was lucky, as was this guy's earlier victim, as were apparently all the motorists within striking distance of him during the times he drove drunk. Seems this perpetrator's had a good run of luck himself as far as the law goes.

Now the question is, when will his next second chance arrive? And will his next victim(s) be so lucky?

The Sarah Foxwell Case (And How it Relates to the J4S Cause)

By now, many of you have heard about this, since it has been gaining national attention: 30-year-old Thomas Leggs, Jr., a registered sex offender, has been arrested is accused of killing an 11-year-old Salisbury, Md., girl named Sarah Haley Foxwell.

Leggs has a rap sheet so long that it would take forever to go through the littany of cases that pop up in a search of the Maryland Judiciary Case web site. But his most serious and well-documented offenses appear to be that of the rape of a minor in Delaware and a third-degree sex offense case in Maryland that is as old as Sarah Foxwell was. That's right -- Leggs was registered as a sex offender in two states when he allegedly abducted Sarah Foxwell on Dec. 22 and then murdered her.

In Maryland we have Jessica's Law, which mandates minimum 25-year sentences for first-degree sex offenses involving children. But there's a problem, as has been noted by state Sen. Nancy Jacobs: even these supposedly mandatory sentences can be reduced through -- you guessed it -- early release credits.

The leader of a group called Citizens For Jesscia's Law in Maryland put it best in this editorial in yesterday's Washington Post:

"What in the hell is [Leggs] doing back out on the street, and what is he doing having contact with this child?"

Some things never change. Nine years ago, the late Elmer Spencer -- another convicted sex offender with a lengthy rap sheet -- was released from prison after serving just three and half years of a 10-year sentence for an attempted rape (early release credits played a role in his release). Less than a week later, he killed 9-year-old Christopher Ausherman in a baseball field dugout in Frederick.

By the way, here's something else you all should know. In 2006, Sen. Brian Frosh -- yes, the same Brian Frosh who has claimed that he supports tough sentences for violent offenders but won't commit to putting tougher early release credit laws to a vote in the General Assembly -- was one of three lawmakers in the Maryland General Assembly who voted against Jessica's Law.

The Foxwell case continues to be investigated, so time will tell as to how and why Leggs was allowed to strike yet again despite being a registered sex offender. But how much more time will pass, and how many more innocent people will get hurt or killed, before our top lawmakers in Maryland decide that there's a problem with our criminal justice system?

What Goes On In Annapolis... Stays in Annapolis (At Least in Committee)

First, some good news... The Gaithersburg City Council announced that early release credit legislation in the General Assembly will be part of its State Legislative Agenda for the second year in a row, their support for it stemming from Shawn Henderson's murder of Lindsay Harvey.

The bad news, of course, is that Gaithersburg's endorsement means nothing unless top lawmakers allow a bill out of committee, and there is no indication that either chairman of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees will do this in 2010. In fact, it's a pretty safe bet that they won't unless whatever changes we make are to their liking.

Meanwhile, an interesting editorial appeared in today's Washington Post. A state lawmaker who represents Montgomery County wants to pass legislation that require online publicizing of lawmaker's committee votes, but the Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates is not convinced it's necessary (amazing, though not altogether surprising).

Floor votes by lawmakers are posted online, but committee votes are not. Such information must be obtained in a face-to-face manner.
...
In other news, a year-old homicide in Damascus remains unsolved.

An Inmate's View of Truth in Sentencing

An inmate in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds, Md. has sounded off to The Gazette, offering an opposing view of proposed truth-in-sentencing legislation in the state.

No, that is not a misprint. This letter was actually written by a convicted felon still serving time in a Maryland prison. The letter was written in response to this letter by William Colonel Smith, who serves as vice-chairman of a victims' assistance organization in Montgomery County, and whom I had the pleasure of speaking with at length yesterday on the phone for the first time.

Maurice Clemmons: Another Criminal Justice System Blunder?

Although none of the crimes reported here occurred in Maryland, I am posting this because it represents what appears to be yet another series of colossal failures of the criminal justice systems of two states.

This could have happened just about anywhere. Four police officers are now dead, very possibly because of these failures. One now has to wonder where the accountability on the part of the public officials who administered these systems will be.

Katz Wins

Sidney A. Katz has been re-elected Mayor of Gaithersburg, as I'd hoped.

An interesting quote about the Gaithersburg election came from a first-time voter in the city:

"I just moved to Gaithersburg two years ago so it's good to get involved," said Amy Sklut, 29, who said public safety is on her mind.

"To keep the area safe, I think. That's the biggest concern — cutting crime," she said.

Savemaryland.com

A website run by concerned citizens in Maryland has been kind enough to give me a voice as a guest blogger. It's called savemaryland.com. Check out the link to see my post introducing readers to the Justice For Safety movement.

A Survivor's View on the Death Penalty

Food for thought: although not directly related to our cause, this Gazette letter from the mother of a murder victim is asserting that the death penalty does more than harm than good for victims' families.

The sad reality is that the death penalty handcuffs the surviving families of homicide victims to decades of legal procedures. In the end, the vast majority are resentenced to life without parole, which could have been sought at trial.

Recently, a new law in Maryland that raised the standards of evidence in death penalty cases. The letter writer expressed worry that the new law may drag such cases out longer.

Meanwhile, something to keep an eye on: Shawn Henderson has filed a motion for a reconsideration of his sentence, which is life without the possibility of parole, plus 20 years, for killing Lindsay Harvey. Recall that the sentencing judge, Terrence McGann, was adamant that Henderson never be allowed to set foot outside a maximum security prison for the rest of his life.

Sidney Katz For Mayor

If you live in Gaithersburg, then you probably know that there is an election taking place on Nov. 3. The mayor's office, along with two city council positions, are up for grabs.

Sidney Katz, who has served as Gaithersburg's mayor for the past 11 years, is being challenged in this year's election by Richard Koch, a real estate developer. Koch believes the time has come for a change in Gaithersburg. Katz has also come under fire from Demos Chrissos, a former city council candidate who expressed his thoughts this week in a letter to the Gazette.

I am not a Gaithersburg resident, but I covered the city council for a year and a half as a reporter for the Gazette. Last year I used those connections to get the city to support our efforts to bring truth in sentencing to the state of Maryland.

I don't claim to know the ins and outs of Gaithersburg politics as well as I used to, but I will tell you this. When I approached Sidney last year at his Wolfson's Department Store in Olde Towne and told him about the Justice For Safety movement and our desire that the City of Gaithersburg endorse legislation that would reform the early release credit system in Maryland, I barely even had to tell him the reason why I had gotten involved with this effort before he agreed to it immediately.

Since then, the city has held a work session to raise public awareness of the issue, and it sent two of its representatives to Annapolis last March to testify in support of Senate Bill 354 and House Bill 581.

I found it curious and interesting that Mr. Chrissos believes that Mayor Katz should be "held accountable for the rise in violent crime and gang activity during his watch". With all due respect to Chrissos (who I also know from my Gazette days), if he is aware of just how flawed our criminal and correctional systems are in Maryland, then he should also know that there is only so much the mayor of a small city like Gaithersburg can do to curb violent crime, especially recidivist violent crime.

Should Richard Koch upset Mr. Katz in the Nov. 3 election, then I will certainly make him aware of our group and the city's past efforts in helping us get our message across and ask him to continue that practice. Having said that, I do hope Gaithersburg residents will re-elect Katz, so that one of our known staunch allies will be in position to continue to assist us in our efforts.

Gazette Letter: Violent Offenders Get Off Too Easy

From today's Gazette. A letter from the vice-chairman of the Maryland Victim Services Impact Board calling for reform of the state's early release credit program.

"Widespread Failure" To Report Considerations Unlikely To Improve

Something I missed from The Gazette last month: a followup article from Patricia Murret on the issue of sentence reconsiderations in Maryland and how judges in the state have consistently failed to report reconsiderations that have been granted to those convicted of violent crimes.

The latest news is not encouraging. The state's director of criminal sentencing, according to this article, believes it could be years before anyone has a real grip on the number of reconsiderations that are granted in Maryland.

The call for better reporting followed a strong push by Maryland State's Attorneys and others to overturn the law that allows such reductions.

The April 2008 murder of a Gaithersburg woman put the controversial process in the spotlight. The 12-year sentence of a Landover man who was in prison for slashing the throats of three upcounty residents in 1999 was shortened by two years in 2006. The man, Shawn M. Henderson, 27, shot and killed Lindsay Marie Harvey, 25, of Gaithersburg as she walked from her car to her home April [13]. He has been convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The usual issues regarding reconsideration -- which is unique to Maryland -- remain:

Victims' rights groups oppose the reconsideration law, saying it gives offenders a second shot at sentencing after the emotion of trial has passed. Proponents say the measure encourages rehabilitation of prisoners by inspiring them to stay on good behavior. Wardens have also said that without reduced jail sentences, jails would be overcrowded.

By the way, just to update all of you: Shawn Henderson has appealed his sentence, as is customary and automatic when prison sentences are handed down in Maryland. So far, according to the court records, Henderson and his attorneys have only received the transcripts of all the proceedings pertaining to his murder trial.

Unsolved Murder Goes Against Crime Trends in Silver Spring Community

As of this writing, Simone White's killer remains at large. Here is a followup story from the Gazette on her murder and how it apparently goes against a downward trend as far as violent crime in the area in which she lived.

Coincidentally, Rosa L. Vasquez, the 37-year-old woman who was allegedly killed by a teenage suspect, also lived in this community.

Teen With Violent History Charged With Murder

And so we have another violent criminal reaping the benefits of the land of endless second chances that is the Maryland criminal justice system. And this time a 35-year-old mother is the victim after her 17-year-old gang member killer somehow gets back on the street after assaulting his own mother and the mother of his child.

In the news: Repeat Offender Gets 185 Years for Child Rape

Something else the state of Maryland can learn from as it contemplates truth in sentencing. A Dundalk man has been sentenced to 185 years in prison for sexually abusing a young girl over a period of two years, beginning when the girl was 10.

The convicted rapist, William A. Geyer III, had previously been given a 10-year sentence for a third-degree sex offense against an 11-year-old girl. All but 18 months of that sentence were suspended.

Briggs Chaney Homicide Victim Identified

Details remain scant, but the Silver Spring woman who was found dead on an elevated walkway near her apartment building has been identified as 37-year-old Simone White. All we know at this point was that she was shot at least once. You can read about it here and here.

Woman Found Dead in Silver Spring Apartment Complex

Early this morning, a homicide occurred in an apartment complex in Silver Spring. So far, the details are eerily similar to those of Lindsay Harvey's death. Will post more information on this as it becomes available.

In the News: Brawl Prompts Addition of Cameras Montgomery County Facility

So, the issuance of diminution credits to violent inmates creates a safer environment in Maryland's prisons does it? Apparently, such credits are not exactly the safety net that defense attorneys would like us to believe, at least not in areas of the prisons where there are no cameras.

A Gazette article in today's edition reports on the installation of new cameras at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds, prompted by a July 13 fight involving 30 inmates.

Four Arrested in Cross-County Police Chase

I'm a little late with this, but here goes. Last Friday, a man and three teenagers were arrested following a robbery in Frederick County that had the police chasing them all the way from there to the Milestone area of Germantown. They were charged with armed robbery and attempted murder, among other things, after allegedly holding up a liquor store in Point of Rocks and firing shots at the store clerk.

Fortunately, no one was injured. This story was of particular interest to me because, at the time that this occurred, I happened to have been inside a building in the Milestone area that was on lockdown because of the chase that was taking place.

Far as I know, there is no word yet on the criminal records of the suspects involved. If any more information surfaces, I will post it here.

Md. Public Defender Chief Fired Over Philosophical Differences

Pity the (literally) poor criminals in Maryland. It seems the state's Office of the Public Defender is having a tough time making certain services available for their clients, such as drug treatment or proper housing.

This issue was highlighted in an article in today's Washington Post, which described the circumstances surrounding the firing of OPD's chief attorney, Nancy Forster. Forster apparently thought social workers would be a good way to help the office's clients. But the head of the board that oversees the agency has begged to differ, saying that lean times offer no room for such services.

Of course, it's easy for one to dismiss this as simply a political struggle within an agency that many people look down upon, something to which the Post alludes:

Officially called the Office of the Public Defender, the agency doesn't receive much attention, in part because it represents people accused of drug dealing, homicides and other offenses that don't make them popular with the public. With 400 lawyers and 600 support employees, it spends about $90 million a year representing more than 170,000 people.

I have to admit that it is, in general, difficult to sympathize with anyone associated with the Maryland OPD these days. But then I started reading some of the online comments about this article, and it seems that Forster may well have been trying to do the right things here.

Unfortunately, this is the same OPD that opposed the bills that would have limit violent offenders' good behavior credits, the same office that said, "The purpose of incarceration is not to incapacitate persons by removing them from society for as long as possible." Right. And the purpose of the OPD apparently is to get their clients out of jail as soon as possible, regardless of whether their most violent subjects have been reformed or received all the treatment they need.

Here's something else to consider. Betsy Tolentino, the OPD rep who testified against Senate Bill 354 earlier this year, said "Earning diminution credits serves an important purpose. Getting education, treatment, and vocational opportunities allows for a successful reentry, allows for the inmate to create a stable life upon entering the community, therefore hopefully lessening the chance of reoffending."

Which begs a rather interesting question for Ms. Tolentino. If violent offenders in Maryland's prisons are benefitting so much from the programs in which they participate in prison to earn diminution credits, then why did her boss feel that the office needed to hire social workers to get their clients into those same types of programs?

Letter Published on Truth in Sentencing

A letter I wrote to The Gazette on the Henderson case and the issue of truth in sentencing in Maryland has been published in today's edition.

Also, you can now follow me and any musings I have on this issue or the Justice for Safety movement on my Twitter page. There's been little activity so far, but I am hoping to use Twitter to spread the word about J4S' continuing efforts.

The Henderson Sentencing -- and Where We Go From Here

So Shawn Henderson has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the shooting death of Lindsay Marie Harvey (an updated version of last week's Gazette coverage appears in today's edition. This was, by all accounts, the best possible outcome. It is what we asked State's Attorney George Simms to pursue when we met with him last summer just a few months after Lindsay's murder. It was the only punishment, absent the death penality, that we believed would do justice for Lindsay and her family. And given Henderson's violent history and the danger he poses, it was the only ruling that made sense.

Judge Terrence McGann got it right. He considered Lindsay's life and Henderson's life. He spoke of the senselessness of Henderson's crime. He considered Henderson's history and concluded that he would be "derelict" in his duty if he did not permanently remove Henderson from society. He told Henderson that the convicted murderer had "forfeited" his right to be in our community. And he also praised Lindsay's friends and family for their courage in speaking out against Henderson through their victim impact statements, even calling them "powerful".

And the judge went one step futher. McGann told Henderson that, although he has the right to appeal his sentence and ask for it to be reconsidered at some point, he said he would advise any panel that reviews Henderson's case against recommending his release from prison. Basically, the judge said, any attempt on Henderson's part to regain his freedom would be "an exercise in futility" (if only McGann had been the presiding judge when Henderson was being prosecuted for his 1999 knife attacks).

I couldn’t help but take some grim satisfaction in the fact that several of Lindsay's family members, friends, and supporters attended last week's hearing, while no one showed up to support Shawn Henderson. After all, Lindsay died frightened and alone at the hands of this monster. Now, here was Henderson, sitting there at the defense table, shaking and trembling, about to learn of his own fate, and no one was there to help him, except for his attorneys -- and they get paid to do that.

Oh yes, Henderson "apologized" but didn’t actually admit to killing Lindsay. Henderson's "apology", of course, comes after being convicted in a trial where he not only pleaded not guilty and had his attorneys try to blame his cousin for the shooting but threatened one of his co-assailants with murder if he didn’t "take his beef" for Lindsay's death.

If nothing else, the hearing has provided some closure. It has given us some peace of mind, knowing that Henderson will spend the rest of his life in prison, no longer free to hurt another human being.

But the feelings of anger, sadness, and bitterness remain. Anger at Henderson. Anger at the justice system that had him within its grasp and simply let him go when it should have been able to see what an animal he still was. Anger at the lawmakers in Maryland that allow this system to continue the way it is and still are not swayed by tragic incidents like this. Anger at the defense attorneys in this state who inexplicably try to defend this system and claim that it actually lessens the chances of a violent offender's recidivism, despite all evidence to the contrary.

On a personal note, this whole thing has affected me in ways that I cannot even begin to explain. I've spent a good amount of time getting to know the Lindsay's family, in particular Deb Harvey, Lindsay's mother. These are good people. It breaks my heart that this horrible injustice was inflicted upon them.

If Lindsay's death teaches us anything, it is that we are all vulnerable. Violent crime is not just something that we see on the news, or something that happens only to people who make the wrong choices in life. It affects everyone. No one is immune. And the worst part of all is knowing that it can happen because the system that is supposed to be protecting you really isn't doing that.

Lindsay Harvey lived a good life. She loved animals. She loved kids. She loved her family and her friends. She loved her job, and she loved science so much that she taught it to others here in Maryland. She did all the right things, kept company with the right people, and made good decisions in life. And yet somehow it wasn't enough to keep her from becoming the victim of a random act of violence.

It doesn’t make sense, and it never will. But this is the reality we live in. We must do our part to protect each other. Please continue to join us in my efforts to change the system that we can prevent these awful, senseless crimes from happening again and again. Write to your state delegates and senators. Write to Sen. Brian Frosh at brian.frosh@senate.state.md.us. Write to Del. Joseph Vallario at joseph.vallario@house.state.md.us. Sen. Frosh says he supports tough sentences for violent offenders. Tell him to back those words up and move the diminution credit legislation he let die this year out of the Judicial Proceedings Committee in the 2010 legislative session.

You can make a difference, and there is no excuse not to try.

Justice was done in that courtroom last week. But we've got a long way to go. Mitch Cunningham, quoted in The Gazette, has said that the Henderson sentencing will "redouble our efforts" to get diminution credit legislation passed in the General Assembly. I will be part of that effort. So will Deb Harvey. Won't you please join us?

Oneonta Daily Star Picks Up the Henderson Sentencing Story

Although they obtained their information second-hand, Lindsay Harvey's hometown paper nonetheless has followed up on the story of her killer's sentencing hearing. Lindsay was a 2000 graduate of Oneonta (N.Y.) High School.

I neglected to mention earlier that in addition to life without parole, Shawn Henderson also received 20 years for the use of a handgun in the commission of a crime. His attorneys are appealing Judge Terrence McGann's ruling. Judge McGann, however, warned Henderson that an appeal would be "an exercise in futility" and pledged to do everything in his power to make sure he is never released from prison.

Lindsay Harvey Scholarship Fund Raises $10,000

Just found this on the Oneonta Daily Star web site, even though it was published almost two months ago. It's a letter to the editor from Felicia Lynd, Lindsay Harvey's grandmother, announcing that the scholarship fund that was established by Lindsay's high school alma mater in Oneonta raised $10,000. This is so good to know. Here is Ms. Lynd's letter:

It has been more than a year now since the tragic and brutal loss of my granddaughter, Lindsay Marie Harvey. The tears still flow and she will be dearly missed and loved forever.

Our family was blessed with such an outpouring of love and support at a most difficult and sad time.

Many people, local, and some across the country, very graciously donated to an Oneonta High School scholarship fund in memory of Lindsay. She would have been so humbled and proud. Education was very important to her. She loved learning and also teaching. In the community college newspaper in Frederick, Md., it stated that although Lindsay loved her job at the “Armed Forces DNA Lab,” they felt her true love was teaching. Lindsay taught forensic science at the community college in addition to her regular job at the DNA Lab.

Since there has been no public acknowledgement of the amount received for the OHS scholarship, we thought it most appropriate to inform those who donated that very close to $10,000 was received.

Our family is most thankful for the generosity shown us.

Lindsay’s mom, her brothers, her grandmother, and uncle and aunt are all alumni of OHS.

Felicia Lynd
Oneonta

Update on Gazette Coverage of the Henderson Sentencing

The Gazette has updated its online piece on the Henderson sentencing. The story now has a photo of Debra Harvey hugging State's Attorney Sherri Koch as well as a link to a video of the press conference that took place after the hearing ended.

Washingtonpost.com Article on the Sentencing

From Dan Morse.

Gazette Article on the Sentencing

Just posted on the paper's web site about an hour ago.

Report: 10% of Md. Inmates are Serving Life Terms

Just found this on the Washington Post's web site. Will be filling this blog with details and analysis of the Henderson sentencing soon but thought this piece was too relevant not to pass along.

Stay tuned.

BREAKING NEWS: SHAWN HENDERSON HAS BEEN SENTENCED TO LIFE WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE

Details and analysis to follow later.

The Henderson Sentencing: Today's the Day

In just a few hours, Shawn Henderson will receive his sentence for murdering Lindsay Harvey. Today's Gazette has a short preview of today's hearing basically rehashing the incident, Henderson's convictions and those of his co-assailants, who were already sentenced earlier this year. The article also gives brief mention to Henderson's previous crimes and the mechanisms Henderson was able to use to obtain his early release from prison.

The Gazette will no doubt have more on this. The Washington Post plans to cover the hearing as well.

REMINDER: Shawn Henderson Sentencing Aug. 5

At long last, and following numerous delays, Shawn Marqueis Henderson is going to be issued his punishment for the shooting death of Lindsay Marie Harvey, with his sentencing to take place in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 9 AM, in Courtroom 7, 8th Floor.

Although Henderson has been incarcerated since April 15, 2008, for Lindsay's murder, the sentencing hearing and subsequent ruling on his fate should bring some much-needed closure for the Harvey family and will be one more stop on the road to achieving justice for Lindsay. Henderson, as anyone who has followed this case knows, is facing life in prison and will hopefully get it.

Dan Morse of the Washington Post has informed me that the paper will be covering the sentencing, and I am assuming that the Gazette, which has given the most comphensive coverage of the Henderson case of all the D.C. area media, will be there as well. Earlier this week, I sent letters to all the local broadcast media asking that they cover the sentencing hearing, in the hopes that their coverage will shed more light on the issue of sentence reductions through diminution credits and judge's reconsiderations.

If nothing else, the media should find the time to highlight Henderson's criminal record and stoke public outage over the way his earlier case was handled -- making it known that it ultimately led to Lindsay's senseless death -- and lead people to view the system as too soft on violent offenders.

The Lindsay Harvey Scholarship Fund

With this Sunday, July 19, marking what would have been Lindsay Marie Harvey's 27th birthday, I wanted to take this opportunity to encourage you to consider making a donation to the scholarship fund that was set up in her name shortly after her death by her high school alma mater in Oneonta, N.Y.

The information for donating to the scholarship fund is as follows:

Oneonta City School District
Attn: Tom Austin
189 Main St.
Oneonta, NY 13820

Please make checks payable to the Lindsay Harvey Scholarship Fund, and also please know that your contribution to this fund, no matter how big or small, will be very much appreciated by the Harvey family.

Thank you. : )

Alternative Sentencing Reduces Costs -- But What is the Impact on Violent Crime?

An article in today's Washington Post highlights the role that alternative sentencing options have been playing to keep low-level offenders out of prison and reduce prison costs for certain cash-strapped states. Obviously, this is a pertinent issue in Maryland now, with legislation that would have extended the sentences of violent offenders having died in both of the General Assembly's Judicial Proceedings Committees last spring. That legislation was estimated to cost the state of Maryland more than $200 million.

Two things strike me about this article. First, there is some scant mention of Maryland's "community-based" program for drug treatment and other alternative sentencing options -- and no mention of the state's use of diminition credits as a tool for reducing the overall prison population. Second, nowhere in the article is there any mention of the impact these programs are having on violent crime in their respective states.

One would have to surmise that states that are reducing the number of low-level offenders in their prison system through alternative sentencing options are consequently leaving more room in the prisons for violent, more dangerous offenders who need to be incarcerated longer, potentially leading to a reduction in recidivist violent crime.

Is this in fact the case for any of these states? It would be helpful to know this. But this article does not even broach the subject.

For what it's worth, here is what the article says about Maryland's program.

Maryland has one of the country's most advanced community-based corrections programs and has made significant investments in drug treatment programs, [Adam] Gelb [director of the Public Safety Performance Project for the Pew Center on the States], said.

Are these the same programs that both nonviolent and violent inmates alike routinely take advantage of to earn time off of their sentences and gain early release? The same programs that enable them to be released early, regardless of whether they have completed the programs are or otherwise determined to be a good risk for being released back into society?

It is probably worth noting that, when making the case for a reduction of his 12-year prison sentence for his knife attacks, Shawn Henderson's attorney told Judge Durke G. Thompson that her client had forsworn drinking and drugs. During his trial for the April 13, 2008, murder of Lindsay Harvey that he committed just two years after his release from prison, Henderson's attorneys told the court that their client was severely inebriated after drinking several glasses of gin the night that Lindsay was shot to death.

Here's something else worth noting. The Post article mentions how some states are reducing the number of people sent to prison for technical violations, such as missing appointments. You may remember from reading this Gazette article a while back that Shawn Henderson missed a scheduled appointment with his probation officer and committed one other violation of the terms of his probation in December 2007, four months before he killed Lindsay. His probation officer did not seek his arrest for those violations until the day after he was charged with Lindsay's murder.

Moore Gets 18 Months

Anthony Steven Moore, the now 17-year-old boy held as an accomplice in Lindsay Harvey's robbery and murder, was sentenced to 18 months in prison this week after having pled guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

To summarize, Moore will spend 18 months (probable good time credit notwithstanding) at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility and faces two years of probation. He is also being required to receive his graduate equivalency diploma, something for which he will hopefully be held accountable.

He also apologized to Debra Harvey. If nothing else, this is the first on-record apology we've heard from anyone who was responsible for Lindsay's murder.

Frosh Responds

A response to my column that ran in last Sunday's Washington Post has appeared in this morning's paper, and it's from none other than the Maryland Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman himself, Brian Frosh.

Sen. Frosh (as well as the rest of you who read this blog) might want to look closely at some recent articles posted on diminution credits, such as this one and its sidebar (also, a newsworthy item I stumbled upon -- a child killer who had served 3.5 years of a 10-year sentence for assault and then committed that murder five days later recently died in a Hagerstown prison).

Several responses to Frosh's letter are running through my head as I write this post, but for now I am going to address the committee chairman's most blatant falsehood regarding the case of Shawn Henderson.

The column claimed erroneously that Shawn Henderson, the man convicted of murdering [Lindsay] Harvey, was on the street after an earlier conviction for violent crimes because of the state's policy on diminution credits, which reduce prison sentences in return for good behavior.

In reality, Mr. Henderson was free because the judge in the case suspended all but 10 years of an initial 60-year sentence (three consecutive 20-year terms). The judge would have been fully aware of how much time the defendant was facing in prison and when he would first be eligible for release.

Correction, Mr. Frosh: Henderson had all but 12 years -- not 10 -- of his sentence suspended when Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Durke Thompson issued that sentence back in 2000 for the robberies he committed when he was 17 years old. Thompson later reduced Henderson's sentence from 12 years to 10 at his reconsideration hearing.

But all issues regarding the controversial process of sentence reconsiderations aside, even that's beside the point. The suspension of Henderson's sentence by itself did not lead to Lindsay Harvey's murder. Henderson was sentenced in 2000. Had he been made to serve all 12 years -- or even 10 years -- of the nonsuspended portion of his sentence, he would not have been free to murder Lindsay Harvey on April 13, 2008. He would have been sitting in a prison cell that night. And Lindsay would have made it home alive.

Again, Henderson was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2000. He got out of prison on April 14, 2006, with good time credit having taken the majority of the time off his sentence. He murdered Lindsay Harvey on April 13, 2008. You do the math.

For Frosh to insinuate that Henderson was free that night because of the sentence suspension alone is ignorant at best and intellectually dishonest at worst.

Incidentally, to which piece of legislation is Frosh referring when he mentions the passing of a bill that "makes it more difficult for prisoners convicted of violent crimes to obtain early release through good-conduct credits"? That would have been helpful.

Nice try, Senator.

Henderson Sentencing Postponed -- Moore Asks To Be Sentenced as Minor

A couple of updates:

-- I learned today that Shawn Henderson's sentencing hearing -- originally scheduled for May 21 -- is being delayed at least a month or two because his attorneys want to have a psychological evaluation performed on him.

Also, Anthony Moore, the 16-year-old who was charged as an accomplice in Lindsay Harvey's murder and has since pled guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery, is now appealing to Judge Durke G. Thompson to be sentenced as a minor. This is despite the fact that Thompson ruled earlier that Moore could be tried as an adult and that Moore entered into the plea agreement as an adult. Moore was 15 years old on April 13, 2008, the night that Shawn Henderson killed Lindsay Harvey.

Something from today's Gazette that caught my eye: a Germantown, Md., woman convicted of arson three years ago just had 10 years taken off of her 15-year prison sentence for that crime, all thanks to a judge's reconsideration of her sentence. In the article, reporter Patricia Murret makes note of the controversial nature of sentence reconsiderations in Maryland.

You may remember that, in addition to the time off that Shawn Henderson received through diminution credits for the stabbings/robberies he committed back in 1999, he also had his sentence reduced by two years following a reconsideration hearing.

My Column on Dim Credits Has Been Published in the Post

I had to shorten it quite a bit, but it was indeed published in today's Metro section, page C6.

Lindsay Marie Harvey -- One Year Later

Today marks one year since Lindsay Harvey died after a convicted robber shot her and left inside a dumpster enclosure in the parking lot of her apartment complex in Gaithersburg.

Lindsay had lived here in Montgomery County for four years after moving here from upstate New York. During that time she worked as a DNA technician, then DNA analyst, for the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Rockville. She was among 40 other analysts at the lab whose job was to help identify the remains of missing soliders from as far back as World War I.

On Saturday, April 12, Lindsay was doing what most young professionals in their mid-20s like to do -- hanging out with some good friends. And then, after the clock struck midnight the following morning, she came home.

But she never made it to her apartment door. And now, even a year later, we are still asking ourselves why and how.

Lindsay Harvey's April 13, 2008, death at the hands of Shawn Marqueis Henderson exposed serious flaws in the criminal justice system in Maryland that allowed Henderson to be free the night that he killed her instead of in a prison cell where he belonged. Her murder has prompted a movement that has forced lawmakers to reexamine the way the correctional system in Maryland handles its most violent offenders.

I have used this blog mainly to provide information and updates on this movement and other things and events related to the diminution credits system in Maryland, as well as the trials of Shawn Henderson and his accomplices. Very rarely, if ever, have I used this blog for mere pontification or posted items here that represent pure, unfiltered commentary on my part since it was started.

One reason for this is that I want this movement -- and this blog -- to be mainly about the facts regarding Maryland's criminal justice system and the ways it can and should be changed. I also want to use this blog to spur people into action and get them to write to their state representatives in Maryland so that one day we may finally see the change in the criminal justice and correctional systems that is so badly needed in what the US Census Bureau ranks as the nation's 5th most violent state.

It is not my intention to turn this blog into an ongoing obituary for Lindsay Harvey. Lindsay was a very private person, and her closest friends made it abundantly clear to me when we started this whole thing last spring that the movement needs to be about putting people like Shawn Henderson behind bars longer so that they are not released from prison before they are ready.

But there's also no hiding the fact that it is because of Lindsay that this movement is taking place. We are pushing for changes in the system in honor of Lindsay's memory, and because Lindsay herself would have been proactive had one of her friends died in such a tragic manner. And if anyone was worthy of the protection of our criminal justice system, it was Lindsay.

Lindsay Harvey lived a good life, one that she should still be living. She was a good person. She was a kind, gentle soul who did nice things for people because she enjoyed doing those things. She cared about people and respected all living things.

Shawn Henderson, on the other hand, is a vicious street criminal who cared about nobody but himself. He slashed and stabbed people after robbing them. He ruthlessly and senselessly murdered an innocent woman. And he showed his true colors in court by trying desperately to pin the blame on others for what he did to Lindsay.

The worst part of all of this, of course, is that Lindsay's death could have and would have been prevented if only those who should have known better -- especially those who preside over the legal, criminal, correctional systems in Maryland -- had shown some common sense. But even worse than that is the fact that some of the most powerful lawmakers in the state of Maryland still do not seem to be inclined to move forward legislation that would improve the system.

Shawn Henderson will soon no longer be society's problem. He will hopefully be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole when his sentencing hearing takes place on May 21. Assuming that happens, diminution credits will not help him this time -- lifers without parole are not eligible for such credits.

But putting Shawn Henderson away this time for good doesn't change what happened. It won't bring Lindsay back. And it won't change the fact that scores of violent criminals in Maryland's prison system are still getting out of jail early because the credits they earn once they enter the system essentially mandate their early release.

That Shawn Henderson was free to murder Lindsay Harvey on April 13, 2008, because diminution credits helped win him his freedom after serving just half his original prison sentence will forever be a black mark on the criminal justice system in Maryland. And that will forever leave a bitter taste in the mouths of everyone who knew and loved Lindsay and knows all too well that she should still be living her life today.

The system needs to be changed. Giving violent criminals endless and easy incentives for early release isn't just wrong, it's dangerous. Our state cannot continue to constantly put innocent people's lives at risk like this.

To paraphrase the question posed by Debra Harvey during the hearing on Senate Bill 354 last month, does the state of Maryland -- home to two major metropolitan areas -- want to attract talented, productive citizens like Lindsay Harvey, or does it want to protect violent criminals like Shawn Henderson.

I think most people living in Maryland know what they would choose. But what about our top lawmakers in Annapolis? When will they finally step up to the plate and acknowledge that we have a serious problem here?

Our legislation to limit diminution credits in Maryland did not get out of committee in the Maryland House or Senate this year. But we will be back next year to try again. We have already made great strides with the research we've done and the support we have garnered from some lawmakers in Annapolis. At some point later this year, we will regroup so that we may make even greater progress on getting this legislation passed.

Memo to Brian Frosh and Joseph Vallario: Our commitment to keeping Marylanders safe is as strong as ever. So is our commitment to achieving justice for Lindsay Harvey and her family.

To put it more plainly, this isn't over. Not by a longshot.

Rest in peace, Lindsay.

My (Possible) Op-Ed Piece in Sunday's Washington Post

With the legislative session in Maryland set to end and the one-year mark since the murder of Lindsay Marie Harvey on Monday, I submitted an op-ed piece on the diminution credits issue to the Washington Post, in the hopes that it will be published in this Sunday's edition, April 12. Presently, I do not know if this will happen. The limit on readers' op-ed pieces is 800 words, and even my condensed version exceeds that limit. Only time will tell.

In the meantime, I want to share with you now the unedited column I wrote in its entirety:

One year ago this evening, Lindsay Marie Harvey, a 25-year-old DNA analyst and college professor who had moved to Montgomery County from upstate New York four years earlier, ventured from her home at the Grove Park Apartments in Gaithersburg to spend a Saturday night out with some friends. Little did she know that she had precious few hours left to live.

Around this time, a convicted felon named Shawn Henderson was at the Grove Park complex, looking to score some quick cash. Drunk and armed with a .40-caliber handgun, he flashed the weapon to a group of people at the complex that night, asking them if they knew anyone he could rob. When they said they didn’t, Henderson later began scouring the complex's parking lot, searching for a victim. Sometime between 1 and 2 AM the following morning, Lindsay Harvey pulled in.

Some 12 hours later, a neighbor discovered Lindsay's body lying face down inside a trash bin enclosure located 90 feet from where her car was parked and less than a hundred yards from her apartment. Her purse had been overturned, and her wallet -- which had $40 in it -- was missing. She had been shot once in the back of the head.

After Henderson was arrested two days later and charged with robbing and shooting Lindsay, the shock and disbelief among Lindsay's friends and family over what seemed to be a random act of violence committed against her quickly turned to outrage when it was learned that Henderson had been in trouble with the law before, and by all accounts should have still been in prison the night that he killed Lindsay.

Eight years earlier, when he was a teenager, Henderson had been sentenced to 20 years in prison, with all but 12 years suspended, for his role in three violent robberies where he slashed two of the victim's throats and stabbed another in the neck. But some of loopholes in the Maryland sentencing guidelines enabled Henderson to regain his freedom after serving less than six of those 12 years.

Henderson's first break was a reconsideration hearing, which resulted in a Montgomery County judge giving him two-year reduction in his sentence. The second break, the one that put him back on the street, was his attainment of so-called "good time credits," or diminution credits. Through these credits, which inmates begin earning the moment they enter the prison system, Henderson was able to shave nearly four more years off his sentence.
In Maryland, violent offenders routinely earn up to 10 days per month off their sentences through diminution credits, and some violent inmates can even receive up to 20 days of credits a month, if they share their cells. They earn these credits through good conduct (up to five days a month), education (up to five days a month), various prison jobs (up to five days a month), and so-called "special projects" such as substance-abuse treatment, anger management, literacy and learning trades (up to 10 days a month).
Shawn Henderson was convicted of Lindsay Harvey's robbery and murder in February. His case has prompted renewed scrutiny over the way Maryland's criminal justice system handles its most violent offenders and calls for change.

Two bills currently before the Maryland General Assembly seek to limit the amount of diminution credits that violent offenders can receive so that they can earn no more than 15 percent of the time off their sentences through those credits. Similar systems in other states, including Virginia, have been tried and have succeeded in reducing the violent crime rate in those states, something that was pointed out last month out during both hearings on these bills by Maryland prosecutors and other law enforcement personnel.

But the bills have stalled, most notably because of a cost analysis of the legislation estimating that that the state would incur more than $200 million in expenses to keep violent offenders in jail longer and because the leadership in the both House and Senate committees that examine such legislation seems content to simply let these bills die in committee without being brought to a vote by the full Assembly.

The public defender's office in Maryland and others who oppose the diminution credit legislation have argued that the the purpose of prison is not to remove violent criminals from society for as long as possible but to give them options and incentives to behave and to educate reform and themselves.

"Eventually they're going to be released," reasoned Betsy Tolentino, representing the Office of the Public Defender in testifying before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee last month. "And I think the way to release them is at least with some treatment and some incentive to get that treatment so that there is less of a likelihood of reoffending."

But while Tolentino apparently sees Shawn Henderson's case as an unfortunate anomaly in a system that she claims rehabilitates violent criminals and reduces their risk of reoffending, the statistics in Maryland tell a much different story, to the tune of a 51 recidivism rate among violent offenders in a state that the US Census Bureau has ranked as the fifth most violent state in the nation.

Tolentino also fails to grasp that diminution credits are mandatorily applied towards an inmate's early release without any regard to whether the inmate has even been reformed to the point where the possible threat to the community and to public safety is minimal. A violent offender's release through diminution credits is binding under the law. It's a statutory release, not a discretionary one like parole.

It should be noted that, while he was in prison, Shawn Henderson earned some of his good time credit through classes he had taken towards getting a general education degree, but he never actually earned the degree itself. It is also worth noting that Henderson was rejected in his bid for early release through parole in 2004, but that didn’t matter because Henderson was already shaving years off his sentence through the diminution credits he was earning.

Shawn Henderson received his original 12-year prison sentence for his knife attacks in 2000. He was released on April 14, 2006. He murdered Lindsay Harvey on April 13, 2008, and is now facing life in prison without the possibility of parole for that crime. You do the math and, if you are a criminal defense lawyer, the soul searching to boot. Even the most ardent defenders of the rights of the accused must be left to wonder whether Henderson would have been have been better off in the long run had he just served his full sentence for the knife attacks.

Lindsay Harvey was a kind, gentle soul who represented just about everything that was right and good with this world and made education a priority in life. Shawn Henderson is a career criminal who seems to have viewed his education and vocational pursuits merely as a means to an end. The criminal justice system in Maryland allowed him to reap the benefits of those pursuits without ever truly knowing whether he could be trusted to stay out of trouble. And it cost Lindsay Harvey her life.

The diminution credit legislation that has been sponsored by Sen. Nancy King in the Senate and Del. Ben Kramer in the House has gained immense support from several judicial committee members, among them Sens. Jim Brochin, Nancy Jacobs, and Jennie Forehand, who represents the Gaithersburg neighborhood where Lindsay Harvey lived and was killed. Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz, whose city was shaken enough by Lindsay Harvey's murder that it enthusiastically lent its support for the legislation, put it best when he said that if violent criminals are "not ready for freedom, [then] they're not ready for freedom. Another part of the system shouldn't kick in."

And then there's Debra Harvey, Lindsay Harvey's grieving mother, who, in her heartfelt testimony to both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, posed this question: "Does the Maryland General Assembly wish to attract, support and protect talented, intelligent, productive citizens like Lindsay Harvey? Or do you wish to support violent criminals like Shawn Henderson?"

It's a fair question, to say the least. Do Brian Frosh and Joseph Vallario have the political will to allow the General Assemby to answer it?

Shawn Henderson may have been a complete stranger to Lindsay Harvey, but he was no stranger to the criminal justice system in Maryland. That system had him within its grasp, and it should have been able to keep him there through most, if not all, of his prison sentence. We can argue all we want over what incentives violent inmates should have have at their disposal or what effect that the dearth of those incentives might have had on Henderson's violent tendencies. What cannot be argued is that a more stringent system would have spared Lindsay Harvey's life.

Gazette Column on Truth In Sentencing

Montgomery County Police Capt. Mitch Cunningham has a column in this week's Gazette on the need for a truth-in-sentencing system for violent offenders in Maryland. I myself have submitted an op-ed piece to the Washington Post that I am hoping will be published in this Sunday's edition, with the end of the Maryland legislative session and the one-year mark since Lindsay Harvey's murder both occurring the following day.

The version I submitted to the Post is much shorter than I had originally written because of the paper's space requirement. Soon I will post the entire, full-length piece on this blog.

Senate Bill 354: Is There Still Hope?

Although the Maryland Senate Judiciary Committee allowed the March 30 "cross-over" deadline to pass without letting Senate Bill 354 out of commitee, I have since been told that the legislative session does not officially end until next Monday, April 13.

Sen. Brian Frosh, who chairs the committee and has sole discretion on which bills are let out of committee, is reportedly refusing to allow SB 354 to be brought to a vote by the full Senate despite our testimony at the March 18 hearing and strong support by other committee members.

If there is any hope at all of getting this bill passed in this year's legislative session, we may have to lobby Sen. Frosh directly.

Brian Frosh's email address is brian.frosh@senate.state.md.us. Write to him today and tell him you want this bill passed, especially if you happen to be a Bethesda resident and thus live in his district. Tell him you want to be safe from repeat violent offenders. Tell him you want the state of Maryland to put an end to the revolving door of criminal justice that allows even the worst of the worst to game the system and be let free before they are ready. Tell him that he can help save lives by putting this bill up for a vote. And tell him you are willing to have your tax dollars put towards keeping you and your loved ones safe.

Don't delay. Write to Sen. Frosh now.

Senate Bill 354 Dies in Committee

The title pretty much covers it. No report was issued by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Senate Bill 354 by the Maryland General Assembly's March 30 "cross-over" deadline, which means the bill is dead for this year.

That's the bad news. The somewhat encouraging news is that since the bill simply was not let out of committee, there was no unfavorable report issued on it. So while we did not get what we wished for this time around, those who pushed for an unfavorable report on the bill didn't quite get their way either.

The support we did receive from several members of the SJC was invaluable, and Sen. Nancy King has already indicated that she would be willing to bring the proposed legislation back for the 2010 legislative session. Hopefully by then we will have drawn more attention to the issue of lenient sentencing for violent offenders and be able to drum up more support for the bill.

The Bills: What Happens From Here

Couple of things: first, I am going to be receiving a recording of last week's Senate hearing, so I will listen to that and try and quote from it in an effort to give a more detailed description of what transpired at the hearing in addition to Debra Harvey's testimony.

Also, in a matter of days, we will know for sure whether our bills will pass or even get as far as the House and Senate floors. March 30 is the deadine by which SB 354 must be voted on by the full Senate. That means one of three scenarios will occur:

1) The bill gets a favorable report by the SJC and gets sent to the Senate floor for a vote.

2) The committee kills the bill.

3) The committee does nothing, missing the March 30 deadline, and the bill simply dies on its own, which would have the same result as scenario no. 2.

Sen. Brian Frosh, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has the final word on whether SB 354 gets out of committee. But as the committee's chairman, he has to consider the bill's fiscal note, i.e., the estimated cost associated with passing the bill, which has been estimated at approximately $202 million.

The Shepherd Sentencing: The Gazette's Account

Here is today's Gazette article on the sentencing of Aaron Shepherd. Many thanks to Judge William Mason, who saw through the pleas Shepherd and his family made for mercy and gave him the maximum sentence under the law.

Although you can read the article in its entirety in the above link, some quotes stick out. From Debra Harvey's victim impact statement:

"Mr. Shepherd, you are THE person who could have prevented this tragedy, but instead you encouraged and energized Mr. Henderson by leading [him] through your neighborhood until he found a suitable victim...You had at least two opportunities to opt out, to go in the house and stay there. You chose to walk, lead him through your neighborhood until he found someone defenseless and vulnerable —Lindsay.

"You have caused my family pain that will never go away...Additionally, you have caused your own family pain by your actions."

From an angry Juanita Brown, Shepherd's aunt:

"Another life gone." (forgetting, apparently, that her nephew is alive and probably stands the same chance of getting an early release from prison that his cousin Shawn Henderson did for his 1999 knife attacks).

And then there's Aaron Shepherd himself, who had the gall to ask a flabbergasted Mason to let him walk free yesterday.

"Your honor, I'm not a bad guy, and I'm not a good guy, either; but I'm a loving guy...I pray every night and day for Ms. Harvey...I can understand what the family is going through."

And yet Shepherd -- who himself lost a brother to a gunshot wound and almost lost another brother because of the same thing -- apparently saw no reason to try and stop a man with a loaded weapon from killing an unsuspecting victim.

These people really don't get it, do they?

Shepherd Gets 10 Years for Conspiracy

I'm getting this information second hand, but here is what I have been told happened at yesterday's sentencing hearing for Aaron M. Shepherd

Aaron M. Shepherd, one of the accused accomplices who was arrested along with Shawn Henderson and Anthony Moore in the murder of Lindsay Marie Harvey, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the crime, with all but 10 years suspended.

Shepherd, as you may remember, was charged with murder, armed robbery, and conspiracy to commit armed robbery but was found guilty only of the conspiracy charge by a Montgomery County jury.

Shepherd's extended family attended the sentencing hearing, as did Debra Harvey. Shepherd's family said he was a "hard worker" who interacts well with younger kids. Shepherd himself apologized to Judge Michael D. Mason but apparently had the gall to say that if Mason would let him "walk out of the court now" he would never see him in court again. He also said something about promising to do volunteer work for the elderly.

Thankfully, Judge Mason was not swayed by any of this.

He told Shepherd that it was obvious that he did not understand or take responsibility for the seriousness of his crime. He quoted from some of the victim impact statements that Lindsay's family and friends wrote and even went as far to say that Shepherd encouraged his cousin Henderson and recruited Moore for the robbery. And despite several opportunities to do the right thing -- dissuade Henderson, warn people of the potential danger, etc. -- Shepherd did nothing to try and stop Henderson and in fact supportred and encouraged Henderson by leading him through the Grove Park neighborhood the night Henderson killed Lindsay.

Even worse yet for Shepherd: the prosecutors noted that he had two other incidents on his criminal record, one of which occurred between the time of Lindsay's murder and his arrest (Lindsay was murdered on April 13; Shepherd was arrested in June)!

So Shepherd will spend at least a few years in prison (time already served is being counted towards the 10 years he received). With the law in Maryland being what it is and all the options we know Shepherd will have for reducing his time in prison -- reconsiderations, parole, diminution credits -- who knows just how much of that 10 years he will actually serve?

But Judge Mason deserves some credit here, for taking the victim impact statements into account and making a self-described rare move on his part to go outside the sentencing guidelines.

Shawn Henderson's sentencing hearing, by the way, is on May 21.

Shepherd Sentencing Hearing Today

Just a reminder: the sentencing hearing for Aaron Shepherd is scheduled to take place in Montgomery County Court in less than an hour. Shepherd was one of Shawn Henderson's alleged accomplices in Lindsay Harvey's murder. Two months ago, hewas acquitted of murder but found guilty of conspiracy to commit armed robbery. Shepherd is Shawn Henderson's 20-year-old cousin.

Also, in the news over the weekend, the Washington Post published a letter on Saturday from a reader responding to Dan Morse's article about the diminution credits issue.

Speaking of Morse's article, something else I missed in the online version... the fiscal note (which details the financial impact that Senate Bill 354 would have in the state of Maryland, was also linked in the article. You can view it here.

Hearing on SB 354: Debra Harvey's Testimony

Wednesday's hearing on Senate Bill 354 was encouraging, given the support we received from some members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Presently, there is no telling whether the Senate or House versions of our proposed diminution credit legislation will be let out of their respective committees this year, and I will blog more about the details of our expert testimony before the Senate in a later post.

But first, I wanted to share with you, in its entirety, the written testimony of Debra Harvey, the mother of Lindsay Marie Harvey, who made the 350-mile drive from Oneonta, N.Y., to Annapolis this week to give her testimony to the SJC members in person. I will say only this about it: it is one thing to read such testimony -- to hear Debra Harvey speak it in person was something else.


My daughter, Lindsay Marie Harvey, was born on July 19, 1982. With her birth, the most important part of my life began. Lindsay was wise at a very young age. She was loving, generous and sensitive. She was a gentle soul who treated all living things respectfully.

After her graduation from Binghamton University in December 2003, she came to your state, your community, to join the honorable work of the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory. As a DNA technician and a DNA analyst she worked with the multiple cases from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command Central Identification Laboratory and contributed to the identification of United States service members lost in World War II, the Korean War and Southeast Asia. Her work supported the mission that helped to end years of uncertainty and grief for many families -- your families, your friends, your neighbors, your countrymen and your constituents.

Additionally, Lindsay contributed to your community through her volunteer work in the public schools as a career day lecturer, science fair judge and after-school science program facilitator. She also worked as a tutor teaching biology and math to middle school students and as an adjunct professor at Frederick Community College teaching forensic biology.

She volunteered in the Make-A-Wish Foundation fundraiser for several years and donated time and money to animal rescue groups.

I am in awe of the number of people Lindsay helped, supported and touched in her four short years in Maryland. Her friends said her laugh was infectious. She worked hard, but made work the fun and stimulating for everyone. In her memory book her friends and co-workers repeatedly wrote, “Some people strengthen others just by being the kind of people they are.”

Her neighbors at the Grove Park Apartments in Gaithersburg said she always smiled and said hi and was polite and respectful when she was out walking her dogs.

One of her students from FCC wrote, “You could tell she loved what she was doing because of the enthusiasm in her eyes and the passion in her voice for the subject. She will be remembered as a passionate, dedicated professor. One who could spark interest in the unlikeliest of students; one who could make class exciting; one who could be approached with questions about anything related to class or life.”

Additionally, maybe most importantly, she never forgot or minimized the importance of family. In spite of her busy career and life in Maryland, she frequently drove home to spend time with her family.

Lindsay had the ability to make each person feel good about him or herself by understanding what he or she valued, then acknowledging and respecting it. She was everyone’s cheerleader.

Lindsay was a kind, thoughtful coworker, friend and neighbor to the people of your communities.

Much of Maryland borders our great nation’s capital. Does the Maryland General Assembly wish to attract, support and protect talented, intelligent, productive citizens like Lindsay Marie Harvey? Or do you wish to support violent criminals like Shawn Henderson?

Lindsay’s life ended in an unnatural, brutal, senseless way by someone who committed repeated acts of violence against other innocent people. The fact that he was allowed to be free to murder my daughter exposes serious flaws in the present legal and judicial system of your state.

Nothing will change the pain I will feel everyday for the rest of my life. I cry every night hearing her last words as she begged for her life. Every day I anguish over the terror she must have felt those last few seconds of her precious life.

For you, your families, your friends, your co-workers and your constituents, please examine your legal system. Then examine your conscience and vote for safety for the Lindsay Harveys of your communities.

If this does not motivate you to want to do something about the current state of Maryland's criminal justice system, then nothing will. Write to your state representatives and senators and support this legislation -- NOW.

Sidebars to the Post Story on Diminution Credits

Something I missed in the online version of Monday's Washington Post story on the diminution credits system. There was a sidebar online detailing the various tasks inmates can do in order to get time off their sentences and another one showing the timeline of events that led to Lindsay Harvey's murder.

Also, I will have a report on yesterday's Senate hearing soon.

Hearing on Senate Bill 354 This Wednesday

The Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee hearing on Senate Bill 354 is coming up this Wednesday. If you would like to attend or testify, here's all of the information for it:

When: Wednesday, March 18, 1:00 p.m.

Where: Senate Office Building, 11 Bladen St., Annapolis, Maryland

Testimony requirements for the Senate:
You must sign up by 12:30 to testify.
You must submit your written testimony 60 minutes before the hearing, therefore 12:00 pm.
You will have 3 minutes to speak, unlimited time to answer questions .
You must submit 20 copies of your written testimony

Sen. Brian Frosh is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sens. Nancy King, James Brochin, James E. DeGrange, Sr., Jennie M. Forehand, Rob Garagiola, Richard S. Madaleno, Jr., Douglas J. J. Peters, and James N. Robey are sponsoring SB 354. Sens. Brochin and Forehand serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. You can view the makeup of the entire Senate Judiciary Committee here.

There are parking garages near the Senate Office Building, but they do fill up fast. Try to carpool if possible. You can also park at the Naval Academy stadium. Parking is $5.00 and you take a shuttle bus from there to the Senate complex (just ask the bus driver which stop to get off).

WASHINGTON POST PUBLISHES STORY ON DIM CREDITS ISSUE

At last, the big-city newspaper coverage we've been hoping for. You might also want to check out the comments people are posting on this article. (Word of caution, however; some of the comments either miss the point, are ignorant at best, or are offensive at worst -- such is life in the online atmosphere.)

More to come later on this Wednesday's hearing in Annapolis on Senate Bill 354.

Released Prince George's Murder Defendant Arrested Again

Thank goodness they found this guy and locked him up again, even if it was for a drug charge unrelated to the murder he allegedly committed on Feb. 24, for which he was arrested, only to be released by a judge into his mother's custody. Bottom line is, he is off the streets now.

The Latest Outrage of Our Criminal Justice System

Since when is a judge's philosophy on the constitutionality of state laws supposed to act as a substitute for a sound judgment in a murder case? In the Washington Post this week: Prosecutors in Prince George's County are seeking to rearrest a suspect who allegedly murdered a man on Feb. 24 and threatened to kill a witness who saw him and another man carry the victim out of an apartment building in Oxon Hill. The 18-year-old suspect was was being held on $1.5 million bond but was released into the custody of his mother by District Court Judge Hassan A. El-Amin.

The judge defended his actions:

[Judge] El-Amin...denounced as "barely constitutional" the state judicial system's method of determining whether and under what conditions defendants are released before trial. The vast majority of defendants are not represented by an attorney at such appearances, he said. [Sean] Sykes [the defendant] had no attorney.

Incredibly, El-Amin did not deem Sykes a flight risk or a danger to the community.

House Bill 581: The Financial Impact

What will be the financial impact of Maryland House Bill 581 if it becomes law? Longer prison sentences have a price tag, those in opposition to the bill have argued. Del. Curtis S. (Curt) Anderson seemed unconvinced by Montgomery County Police Capt. Mitch Cunningham's testimony that Maryland could emulate the cost savings that Virginia made after becoming a "truth-in-sentencing" state, and that the fiscal impact of reducing violent offenders' diminution credits would cost the state somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.6 million by 2012.

Here's what Capt. Cunningham had to say about crime in Maryland:

In 2006 and 2007, Maryland had the third-highest robbery rate in the US
Maryland is the 6th most violent state in the US (according to the Census Bureau)
Maryland had the second-highest murder rate in the US in 2006 and 2007

Compared with Virginia, Maryland has:

almost three times the violent crime
nearly double the murder rate
2.5 times the robbery rate

And despite the price tag, i.e. the fiscal note, associated with prolonging violent offenders' prison sentences, Capt. Cunningham pointed out that those costs will be balanced out with less need for police, reduction in prosecution, and drops in medical and mental health costs. In my own testimony before the HJC yesterday, I asked the committee members whether the cost of dealing with repeat offenders -- arresting them again, indicting them, trying them, and incarcerating them for even longer periods of time would really be any less than simply extending their original sentences in the first place.

"In the end," Capt. Cunningham said, "you see subject matter experts continually come to your committee year after year for stiffer sentencing. Something must be done to make Maryland less violent. Most states with truth in sentencing have less crime than Maryland. Some states that have it have as much if not more. But...we do know that states that went to truth in sentencing saw their crime rates drop.

"I think we all know we need to institute change in Maryland," Capt. Cunningham continued. "What is being done now is not getting the results we all want."

House Bill 581: The Hearing

This may be one of several posts about the hearing.

Yesterday's hearing before the Maryland House Judiciary Committee on House Bill 581, which seeks to limit the amount of diminution credits that violent offenders can attain towards early release was insightful, to say the least. If it's possible to be both emboldened and a little frustrated at the same time, then that was definitely the case with me in Annapolis yesterday.

Del. Benjamin F. Kramer, the bill's sponsor, spoke first -- as is the procedure at these hearings -- to promote the passage of the bill, saying among other things that the dim credits system is deceptive and undermines the idea of truth in sentencing because a judge imposes a sentence, but then neither the judge nor the victim nor the average human being knows just how much of that sentence the offender will serve. These credits are doled out by the corrections system -- without prior notice to their victims -- and do not speak to the issue of whether an inmate is actually ready for freedom. The parole board is supposed to determine that.

Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger spoke next in support of the bill. He was the first to tell the story of what happened to Lindsay Harvey on April 13, 2008. I followed Chief Manger with my testimony. And the committee also received written testimony from Debra Harvey, Lindsay's mother.

I told the committee members that our criminal justice system is supposed to protect innocent people against violent criminals but failed in its duty to protect Lindsay Harvey -- and did so in the worst way possible.

"Diminution credits do not turn violent offenders into law-abiding citizens," I said. "They endanger those of us who are."

Next up was David Mulhausen, a statistical analyst from The Heritage Foundation who argued that truth in sentencing makes incarceration more meaningful and has helped reduce violent crime in other states. This is something that was also argued by Montgomery County Police Capt. Mitch Cunningham and other police personnel and Maryland state prosecutors whose testimony followed Mulhausen's.

John McDonald, the lead prosecutor for Queen Anne's County, said that parole -- not diminution credits -- is supposed to be the carrot that gets inmates to behave better and thus make their case for early release. Diminution credits, he said, are not "good time" credits, they're simply credits -- inmates earn them at pretty much the moment they're incarcerated. They essentially get credit for time they are never going to serve, he said (you may remember that Shawn Henderson's bid for parole in 2004 was rejected, but he was released early anyway because of the diminution credits he had attained during his stay in prison).

Mitch Cunnigham, for his part, spent time debunking defense lawyers' long-held beliefs about violent crime and its causes, saying that poverty and employment as factors don't hold water because Montgomery County, for one, has one of the nation's lowest unemployment rates but has one of its highest crime rates. He compared Montgomery County's crime rate with that of neighboring Fairfax County, Virginia, which have similar per capita incomes but different criminal justice systems. In Virginia, where truth in sentencing is in place, the crime rate has been reduced and many offenders have been "redirected" or given alternative sentencing options, depending on what risk they pose to the community (more on the data Capt. Cunningham compiled in a future post).

None of this, of course, was enough to dissuade those who testified against HB 581. Lori Adler, an attorney representing the Office of the Public Defender, said that violent offenders are already subject to very long sentences (leaving out the fact that none of these offenders actually serve that time, due to sentence suspensions, reconsiderations, and of course, diminution credits). She also challenged the assertion that the system in Virginia has actually reduced crime and believes that state has suffered a huge financial burden, despite Capt. Cunningham's testimony to the contrary.

And of course, there were some members of the HJC, particularly Del. Curtis S. (Curt) Anderson, of Baltimore City, who indicated that concept of truth in sentencing means different things to different people and argued that judges are indeed well aware that violent inmates participate in all of the programs that offer diminution credits.

More to the point, Anderson also indicated that he could not see HB 581 going forward so long as it had such a large fiscal note attached to it (more on that in a future post).

To conclude, I will tell you that I have never felt so emboldened by this cause than I did yesterday. I believe those who gave the expert testimony in support of the bill, including Del. Kramer, made a solid case for its passage, refuting perfectly just about every bit of opposition that came their way. These people did not just assert their support for HB 581 -- they vigorously defended it against every hint of opposition that was thrown their way.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know at this time whether HB 581 will survive the committee process and reach the House floor. But this legislation is clearly worth fighting for, and if it does not get passed or does not receive a favorable review by the committee this year, I have no doubt that we should come back to the Assembly next year and try and get this passed again.

Hearing on House Bill 581 This Tuesday

The Maryland House of Delegates Judicial Proceedings Committee hearing on House Bill 581 is coming up. If you would like to attend or testify, here's all of the information for it:

When: Tuesday, March 10, 1:00 p.m.

Where: House Office Building, 6 Bladen St., Annapolis, Maryland

Testimony requirements for the House:

- You must sign up by 12:30 to testify
- You must submit your written testimony 60 minutes before the hearing (in this case, 12:00 pm)
- You have 3 minutes to speak, plus unlimited time to answer questions
- You must submit 35 copies of your written testimony

Del. Joseph F. Vallario, Jr. is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Dels. Ben Kramer, Don H. Dwyer, Jr., Susan K. McComas, Kirill Reznik, Christopher B. Shank, and Michael D. Smigiel are sponsoring House Bill 581. All except Reznik and Shank serve on the House Judiciary Committee.

Moore Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy

First of all, my apologies... I had posted something about this last week but then pulled it upon hearing that this plea deal had not yet been finalized but was actually being considered by the judge in the case. Justice for Safety regrets this error.

In any event, Anthony Moore has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery in Lindsay Harvey's death in exchange for prosecutors dropping the charges of armed robbery and first-degree felony murder against the 16-year-old.

The conspiracy charge carries a maximum of 20 years. Judge Paul Weinstein is considering a possible sentence of 5 years, with all but 18 months suspended.

ATTENTION MARYLAND RESIDENTS: It's Crunch Time

Last night, I spoke again before the Gaithersburg City Council about the diminution credits issue that is now on the Maryland General Assembly's agenda. Here is the text from my speech.

Thank you. Back in November, Mayor Katz and the Gaithersburg City Council pledged its support for proposed legislation in the Maryland General Assembly that would limit the amount of good time -- or diminution -- credits that violent offenders in the Maryland prison system could receive towards early release. The call for this legislation was prompted by the murder of Lindsay Harvey, a Grove Park Apartments resident who last spring was shot and killed by a man who had been jailed for other violent crimes but was released from prison almost six years ahead of schedule, thanks in part to these good time credits.

I have some good news to report since last November. First of all, you will be very relieved to know that Shawn Henderson, the man who was charged with killing Lindsay Harvey, was convicted of her murder a few weeks ago and is now facing life in prison without the possibility of parole. I am also pleased to tell you that our proposed legislation regarding the diminution credits has been introduced in both the House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate. Senator Nancy King is the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 354, and Delegate Ben Kramer is the lead sponsor of House Bill 581. These bills would make it so that violent offenders can receive no more than 15% of the time off their sentences through diminution credits.

All of this notwithstanding, the issue remains the same. We have a correctional system in Maryland that we believe is far too lenient when it comes to issuing time off for good behavior for violent criminals and does not speak to the issue of whether these inmates are deserving or ready to be let loose into society. Senate Bill 354 and House Bill 581, if passed, would be an important first step towards ensuring that violent offenders serve as much time in prison as is necessary.

The passage of these bills is far from guaranteed. They will face strong opposition in both houses of the General Assembly. Because of this, I am asking you for your help. I would like all of you to please write to your state delegates and senators and urge them to support this legislation and get it passed. Tell them that you want your streets and your neighborhoods to be made as safe as possible and that you support this legislation.

I would also encourage you to visit our blog. That address is justice4safety.blogspot.com.

Time is of the essence here. The hearing on the House Bill is next Tuesday, March 10, and the hearing on the Senate Bill is on Wednesday, March 18.

On behalf of myself and the friends and family of Lindsay Harvey, I thank you all very much for your support.

It should be noted here that the proposed diminution credits legislation is now listed in a brochure describing the City of Gaithersburg's state legislative priorities for 2009. The section on diminution credits reads as follows:

- On April 13, 2008 a Gaithersburg resident was brutally murdered by a suspect who should have still been in jail for previous violent crimes.

- We are seeking passage of a bill that would prevent Maryland's violent offenders from receiving diminution credit (time off sentence for good behavior) for more than 15% of their sentence

- Passage of this bill will not affect a prisoner's ability to be released on parole or restrict a judge's ability to reduce a prisoner's sentence through a reconsideration hearing.

- U.S. Census Bureau data indicates that Maryland is the fifth most violent state in the nation.

The city is planning to send one of its representatives to testify at both hearings in Annapolis.

Remember those dates, everyone. March 10 is the day of the House bill hearing, and March 18 is the Senate hearing. Please WRITE TO YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVES IN BOTH HOUSES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY and urge them to support these bills, especially they happen to sit on either of the judiciary committees in the General Assembly. If you do not know who your elected representatives are in the state of Maryland, you can find out by clicking here.

This issue is going to need all the help it can get. Our testimony in Annapolis alone will not get this legislation passed. Our legislators, YOUR legisators, need to hear from YOU!