"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.