I notice that in all the discussions about taking the power of parole for offenders sentenced to life from the governor that there is no discussion of the rights of the victims and their families ("Advocates want governor out of lifer parole decisions," Jan. 20). Although I am from the suburbs (Catonsville), I have had two close family members murdered in two different jurisdictions. My father was murdered in Baltimore City in 1973, and my younger brother was murdered in Howard County in 1989. My father's alleged murderer was found not guilty, as the only witness was non-English speaking. The murderer of my brother was originally found guilty by trial and sentenced to life in prison, but the conviction was overturned on appeal and he eventually pleaded guilty and received a 17-year prison term. The original conviction was overturned, as it was the first conviction in the state of Maryland in which DNA evidence was used and the Maryland Court of Appeals overturned the conviction because the FBI technician did not testify at the trial on the science of DNA. I might add that this is now not needed at trial as the science has been accepted.
When the convicted murderer was up for parole, my mother and I had to testify three times in order to have him spend as much time in prison as possible. This is the part of the criminal justice process that no one speaks of as to how difficult it is for the victim's family. We had to sit in a room at the prison, literally feet away from the murderer of our loved one, and try to convince the parole board that he should remain in jail. During the first two hearings in our case, the murderer denied committing the crime even though he pleaded to the crime in court. At the third hearing, he finally admitted doing the crime but placed the blame on my brother. Words cannot describe how it feels to sit in the room and listen to the denials and then listen to an explanation of the event that in no way matched the evidence. The board, luckily, saw through this and again denied his parole, but we knew he would be released two years later because of his good time credits. He served a total of 11 years.
As I stated earlier, victims and victims' families are not being considered in this whole process. I know this because no system that allows such close contact with someone who took a life from a loved one has the victim or their family in mind. There is such a simple solution to this and it is done throughout the country. Maryland should switch to a system of determinate sentencing. The federal government (full disclosure, I work for the federal judiciary) and many states have such a system in which the offender serves what he or she is sentenced to with credit for good time. Under this system, the governor does not decide when anyone is released (with the exception of sentences that are commuted), the parole board also doesn't make the same decision and, more importantly, the victim or the victim's family does not have to go through what my mother and I went through three times. At the very least, determinate sentencing for murder cases should be implemented. Words cannot describe the emotions that one goes through when testifying at a parole hearing.
I realize that politically this may not be possible. The parole board would be against this as well as the defense bar, but if the system has any compassion for the victims, it should at least be explored. Thus far, that does not seem to be a concern of anyone speaking on this issue.
Kevin Blackwell, Halethorpe