When Baltimore police arrested Darryl Harcum, he was charged with possession of a stolen gun and some marijuana. In state court, Mr. Harcum would have been looking at a mandatory five-year sentence. But federal prosecutors took the case as part of their Exile program, and Mr. Harcum is now serving nearly 19 years in a federal prison. U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein's interest and investment in the program is paying off, for communities in Baltimore and elsewhere: Defendants with a history of gun crime or violence are doing serious time.
The strategy is to get gun felons and violent repeat offenders off the street and help stop the killing. The joint effort by federal and city law enforcement led to federal charges against a third more suspects in 2007 than the previous year.
Mr. Harcum, 28, was one of them, and he was no stranger to city prosecutors or the state courts. He had eight previous convictions for drug dealing and assault and was on probation at the time of his arrest.
Earlier this year, Dwight "Monster" Hickman, 29, received a 25-year sentence for a federal drug conspiracy conviction. Mr. Hickman had been on the city police's radar for some time. His previous convictions on drug dealing and assaults led to the tougher sentence in federal court - he'll likely be 50 when he gets out of prison.
Some Exile defendants have been suspected of more heinous crimes, but police can't quite make the case against them. Once they are targeted for Exile, however, there's a good chance they'll receive far more time on a lesser offense than they would have in state court. And unlike state court, the federal system doesn't permit suspended sentences.
Those are the benefits of Exile and the reasons the program should be expanded.
When Mr. Rosenstein arrived in Baltimore in 2005 to head the U.S. attorney's office, this page chided him for identifying "terrorism" as his top priority. That may have been what his bosses in Washington wanted to hear. But the priority in Baltimore was ending the wave of violence and murders in the city.
City officials had a hard time getting Mr. Rosenstein's predecessor to focus on gun crime. Mr. Rosenstein has been a quick study, however. His office has increased Exile prosecutions in each of the last two years and targeted 50 violent repeat offenders since 2006.
Experts who have studied Baltimore's violent crime have blamed most of it on a small group. The U.S. attorney's office and its partners are drawing that circle even tighter.