More than a dozen convicted killers
are released
from prison
on a technicality,
and
dozens more could follow.
Monique Griego explains the Court of Appeals ruling
at the center of this controversy.
All of these men were convicted before 1980. And
since then, the court has changed the way juries are allowed to decide cases.
Locked up for decades, thirteen convicted murderers
in Maryland are now free, after the state’s highest court overturned their
convictions due to improper jury instructions.
“It’s absolutely the right decision,” said Mike
Millemann, University of Maryland School of Law.
Mike Millemann, from the University of Maryland’s
School of Law, is working with dozens of inmates fighting for release under the
Court of Appeals ruling.
The decision could entitle as many as 200 inmates,
convicted before 1980 of crimes including murder and rape, to new trials.
“These guys had fundamentally unfair trials. Really
dysfunctional, structurally defective trials,” Millemann said.
The 30 to 40-year-old cases are now creating a mess
of problems for prosecutors in Maryland.
“Trying to find witnesses, trying to find evidence
that’s probably been destroyed,” said Scott D. Shellenberger, Baltimore County
State’s Attorney.
Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott
Shellenberger says prosecutors are forced to decide whether to retry a case or
cut a deal that could set a prisoner free. That’s exactly what happened to the
thirteen already released.
The Baltimore City State’s Attorney believed the
men, most of which are elderly in poor health, were not a threat to society.
“It’s really horrific for the families of the
victims who are still around, and certainly still conjures up all those bad
memories,” Shellenberger said.
While Millemann understands the pain of the
families, he says what the court’s allowed in these cases is a wrong that needs
to be righted.
“Their trials were flawed and there is no reason to
trust any of the results of those trials,” said Millemann.
Seven more inmates are set to be released within the
next month. They will all be put on probation, which means if they make one
mistake, they will be sent back to prison for life.
Baltimore County has successfully fought to keep
four offenders in prison. They have two more pending, but expect more.
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