Anne Arundel County prosecutors will appear in court next week to continue pressing for a death sentence for a Glen Burnie man accused of killing his landlady and her daughter-in-law.
Kenneth E. Abend, who has a history of drug arrests, is facing two counts of murder and related charges in the deaths of Laverne M. Browning, 70, and her daughter-in-law Tamie C. Browning, 36. Their bodies were found Jan. 14 in the trunk of the younger woman's car.
The capital punishment arguments will center on whether a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that struck down Arizona's death sentence law applies to Maryland's law.
Arguments on death penalty issues are expected to take place Wednesday, the second day of pretrial motions hearings. The defense team has filed about 30 motions so far, including several death penalty challenges.
A monthlong trial is scheduled to start in July.
Prosecutors said Abend was the first person for whom a death sentence was sought after Gov. Parris N. Glendening imposed a moratorium on executions in May.
Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has said he will lift the moratorium when he assumes office, and four executions could take place within months.
Police allege that Abend, 39, broke into the South Baltimore home of an acquaintance, Hector Rene Silva, on Jan. 13.
He reportedly told Silva that he needed to hide because of something having to do with hurting his landlady but he would not elaborate. Silva called police, who arrested Abend in connection with the break-in. He was charged in the homicides Jan. 14.
The double-homicide allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Abend.
County prosecutors said they would not comment on the Abend case and have not filed a response to the capital sentencing challenges.
In Ring vs. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court found the capital sentencing laws of five states unconstitutional because judges, not juries, make the crucial decision.
In Maryland, a jury decides life or death, weighing aggravating factors against mitigating ones, unless the defendant wants only a judge.
But Abend's attorneys contend in their motions that Maryland's law falls short of the high court's standard because it requires only that a jury find that "aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors by a mere preponderance of the evidence," a lighter standard for a death penalty law.
"Due process requires that this factual finding be made beyond a reasonable doubt," the motions argue, referring to the toughest standard.
"We are addressing the Maryland death penalty statute," defense lawyer Harry Trainor said.
Prosecutors disagree that Maryland's law fails the test cited by the high court.
They point to differences between Maryland's and Arizona's laws, noting that Maryland juries must find "aggravating circumstances" to impose a death sentence.
"That standard is beyond a reasonable doubt," said Kathryn Grill Graeff, chief of the criminal appeals division in the Maryland Attorney General's Office.
A decision that Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Pamela L. North reaches on whether the ruling from the Arizona case applies to Abend would apply only to that case.