Like the former federal prosecutor that he is, Gregg Bernstein launched his campaign for Baltimore City state's attorney Tuesday by building a case against the longtime incumbent, Patricia C. Jessamy.
Bernstein announced his candidacy just east of 26th and Calvert streets, the site of a March murder in which both the victim and alleged shooter had previously been arrested on multiple charges and had yet been released.
"They were allowed to walk out of the courtroom," Bernstein said, going on to criticize what he called the incumbent's "inexcusable and unacceptable" low conviction rate.
He said the state's attorney's office under Jessamy, who has been the city's chief prosecutor for the past 15 years, has the lowest conviction rate in the state. Half of those charged with murder and 53 percent of those charged with felony gun crimes are not convicted, Bernstein said. Further, he added, 80 percent of domestic violence cases were effectively dismissed.
Jessamy, in an appearance of her own, dismissed Bernstein's use of conviction rates as "old school, living in the past," and said that "hundreds" of defendants are convicted instead in federal court because of her office's cooperation with the U.S. attorney's prosecutors.
She touted her record as one of innovative leadership, saying she was the first to focus on guns and gangs. Jessamy said she did not know where Bernstein got his statistics on conviction rates for various crimes and as a result would not respond to them.
She did say, though, that at least in the case of Donatello Fenner, the 22-year-old man killed near where Bernstein made his campaign announcement, charges against him were dropped once because a larger investigation was involved and another time because a witness could not be located.
"Yes, this is a tragedy," she said, "but definitely not of the state's attorney's making."
Bernstein insisted that "I know I can do better," as he spoke with his wife, Sheryl Goldstein, the director of the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice, and two sons standing with him. She is taking a leave of absence from City Hall for the duration of the campaign.