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.