Baltimore state's attorney candidate Gregg Bernstein and incumbent Patricia C. Jessamy met face to face in their first extended debate Thursday, frequently trading barbs.
During WYPR's "Midday with Dan Rodricks," Jessamy called Bernstein a liar, while he called her ineffective and isolated. The candidates in the Democratic primary also tossed out various claims and statistics to support their candidacy.
The Sun took a closer look at their claims and put them into context to see how they held up under scrutiny.
Statement: Bernstein repeated his claim that the Baltimore state's attorney's office "has the state's lowest conviction rate."
Analysis: The figures may say more about Baltimore jurors than prosecutors.
The claim is based on a 2008 Abell Foundation study and report that looked only at the disparity in outcomes of jury trials from 293 cases in Baltimore and the four surrounding counties from July 1, 2005, through Dec. 31, 2006. It found "substantially fewer guilty verdicts" from city jurors than county jurors during that time. In the city, 23 percent of those tried were found guilty, compared with 53 percent in Anne Arundel, 41 percent in Howard and 40 percent in Baltimore County.
The report concluded that city jurors are less likely than county jurors to convict a defendant, which has also been reported in The Sun. City residents often distrust police and the court system in general, biasing them toward defendants. They're more likely to hand out a not-guilty verdict in criminal cases, and, according to area attorneys, grant large awards in civil cases.
Abell gave a wide range of reasons for the disparity, including prosecutorial discretion, but also "variations in the economic, demographic and attitudinal differences among those in the eligible jury pool in these jurisdictions."
Statement: Jessamy countered Bernstein's claim with statistics of her own: Baltimore City is responsible for about 37 percent of the crime in the state of Maryland, but more than 60 percent of those committed to the Department of Corrections for terms longer than a year come from Baltimore.
Analysis: For fiscal years 2007 through 2009, Baltimore City prosecutors were responsible for sending more people to prison than any other jurisdiction: 63 percent of the inmate population in fiscal year 2007, followed by 60.5 percent and 59.3 percent respectively, according to annual reports from the Maryland Division of Correction.
It's unclear where the 37 percent figure came from, but using judiciary numbers from fiscal year 2009, Baltimore circuit and district courts handled and closed 30 percent of the state's criminal case load (a total of 86,888 cases out of 289,617).
The numbers themselves hold up, but Jessamy's claim implies that the high Baltimore commitment rates are the result of lots of successful prosecutions, relative to the percentage of crimes committed in the city. But her statement doesn't present the full picture because it doesn't take into account the types of crimes that occur here.
Crimes committed in Baltimore are more likely to be violent than in other jurisdictions, meaning they carry prison penalties, whereas nonviolent or property crimes in most other places in the state might not. The violent crime rate in the city is almost three times as high as the state's rate, according to statistics from the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention, which means the prisons are more likely to be filled with Baltimore convicts.
Statement: Jessamy said on the show she initiated a project that spread across the country to team up with federal prosecutors on gun cases.
Analysis: Federal prosecutors have disputed this, assuming she's referring to the Baltimore Exile project, which began in 2006 and was modeled on a Richmond, Va., program that began officially in 1997.
But Baltimore had its own gun prosecution program starting in 1994. It was called "Project Disarm" and involved state and city prosecutors and investigators working with federal counterparts to get armed repeat offenders off the streets. It eventually merged into the Baltimore Exile program.
Jessamy was heavily involved in Project Disarm, but it began when she was still a deputy state's attorney in 1994, not after she became state's attorney in early 1995. It's also doubtful that the idea originated in Baltimore. A federal program called Project Triggerlock was initiated in April 1991 to prosecute criminals with guns at the federal level.
Statement: After Jessamy called herself a "technology queen," Bernstein pointed out that Baltimore assistant state's attorneys don't have work-issued BlackBerrys or voice mail on their office phones.
Analysis: Bernstein's right: The prosecutors don't have work-issued BlackBerrys, though most pay for and carry their own personal digital devices. The phone system is maintained by the city, and most in the offices don't have voice mail. Prosecutors point to a lack of funds.
Statement: Jessamy has said a vote for Bernstein is a vote for "rubber stamp" oversight of police misconduct; Bernstein said he couldn't think of a "single instance in which she has successfully prosecuted a police officer."
Analysis: Bernstein says a better working relationship with police will not result in unfettered police misconduct.
A review of cases brought against police shows that prosecutors have won few significant punishments, but the reasons are complicated — evidence has gone missing, police investigations have been flawed, convictions have been overturned by higher courts or, more commonly, cases have been pleaded out in exchange for the officers agreeing to quit.
Jessamy's office dropped corruption charges against Officer Brian Sewell in 2001, a case made infamous after then-Mayor Martin O'Malley fumed that she didn't have the "guts" to try the case. Evidence went missing in a burglary at police headquarters, and charges against the officer accused of stealing files were also dropped.
One of the highest-profile cases related to a Southwest District unit accused of becoming a rogue operation implicated in a rape. Ultimately, one officer was acquitted of rape, criminal charges against others were dropped and the city approved a settlement and issued a rare apology to two of the officers.
Jessamy chose not to prosecute Charles M. Smothers, accused of shooting a man outside Lexington Market, and a grand jury would not indict a Housing Authority officer who shot an unarmed teen.
Most recently, Officer Tommy Sanders was acquitted by a jury in the shooting of an unarmed man in the back, and a jury acquitted an officer in an off-duty assault outside a barbershop. Officer Patrick Dotson, who fired his weapon outside a Canton bar, received 10 years with 18 months suspended.
Charges are pending against three officers accused of kidnapping and abandoning a teen in Howard County, while misconduct charges against an officer charged in a sting operation were dropped because of inconsistencies in the police investigation.
Statement: Bernstein said cases flagged by the War Room, a program created to track major offenders, have a conviction rate of 35 percent.
Analysis: Bernstein cites the findings of a report funded through an Abell Foundation grant and compiled by former War Room chief Page Croyder, who retired in 2008. Croyder is also Jessamy's chief antagonist and a frequent, often scathing, critic who says Jessamy's commitment to the effort waned and was whitewashed in official assessments.
Croyder's report was based on a review of the criminal histories of about 10 percent of more than 8,200 violent repeat offenders. It found that offenders in the program were convicted 35 percent of the time and that judges and parole commissioners revoked the probation and parole barely more than a third of the time, despite new convictions.
In a statement, Jessamy's office said that it was "based on a small sample of old cases which yielded unreliable data" and that conclusions can't be drawn about effectiveness without reviewing cases individually.
"To have a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, the study would have had to include a case by case analysis with the specific prosecutor who handled the case, and who was in the position to weigh all the factors necessary in order to arrive at the final result," the statement said.
Statement: Bernstein said prosecutors dropped 80 percent of domestic violence cases in 2009.
Analysis: The claim refers to misdemeanor cases handled in the 2009 fiscal year and was based on reports generated by the Maryland District Court, which the Bernstein campaign provided. Indeed, the reports showed that 80 percent of such cases were dropped in 2009 (though there were no comparisons to other jurisdictions). Prosecutors have repeatedly claimed that raw data fail to take into account the intricacies of why a case falls apart, that many victims invoke spousal privilege or that patrol officers who handle cases fail to gather sufficient evidence. Some cases are also placed on the "inactive" docket — effectively dropped — following participation in the domestic violence programs ordered by the court.