"No Confidence" in the Justice System

This article appeared in last week's Gazette. The paragraphs at the end where Debra Harvey is quoted are worth repeating here.

Debra Harvey of Oneonta, N.Y., whose daughter Lindsay, a Gaithersburg woman, was killed in April 2008 by a repeat violent offender whose early release from prison came in part through diminution credits, wrote a three-page letter to legislators.

She said that after more than one year of meetings, hearings and trials, she watched her daughter's murderer sentenced to life without parole plus 20 years in prison.

"I don't know whether this means he will die in prison or whether he will get out of prison again somehow," Harvey said. "I don't know what to believe and I have no confidence in the Maryland judicial system."

We are now on Facebook

It took me a while, but I finally created a Justice For Safety Facebook page. Check it out and join, and tell your friends about it, too.

House Bil 790

Del. Ben Kramer has filed House Bill 790, which would limit early release credit accumulations for violent offenders to 10 days per month -- and no more than that. No more exceptions, like, for instance, if a violent inmate shares a cell.

The House Judiciary Committee hearing for HB 790 will take place in Annapolis on Feb. 23, beginning at 1 PM. Sen. Nancy King is expected to cross-file the Senate version of this bill.

I will post more information as it becomes available.

We are making progress, however slow it might be.

Coping With Unspeakable Loss (Part II)

The second in the Post's two-part series on the Erika Smith murder.

Coping With Unspeakable Loss

Kudos to the Washington Post for this: the first in a series of stories about a mother whose 9-year-old daughter was shot to death by a repeat offender at her father's house in Silver Spring (the girl's father was also killed in the attack).

The Post should be commended for focusing its reporting on a victim's mother, as opposed to a perpetrator that got one too many second chances and used his newfound freedom to break the law yet again.

Maybe if more stories like this get published then people will be motivated to seriously re-examine the criminal justice system in Maryland and in the nation and put pressure on their elected representatives to make serious changes.

Maryland: Land of Second Chances (Part II)

Twenty years ago, murder conviction in Prince George's County got this man locked up for life without parole. A technicality (coupled with early release credits) set him free after 17 years in prison. And last month, a complete waste of his newfound second chance ended up getting him killed in Washington, D.C.

The justice system works in weird ways sometimes, doesn't it?

Maryland: Land of Second Chances

First off, happy new year, everyone.

A few stories in the Baltimore Sun illustrate just how infuriating the justice system in Maryland can be. Recently, a man who had been sent to prison for life for a murder he committed in 1967 was released after he "remade himself". There's also the story of an 18-year-old who repeatedly violated his probation and went unpunished until he allegedly committed murder.

Not to be critical of the Sun or anything, but in both of these articles, the victims of these two men are barely given any copy. With that said, may Joseph Caslow and Alonzo Key rest in peace, although it's pretty clear that justice may never truly be served in their cases.