Two events during the past week have served to highlight — once again — one of the most serious flaws in Maryland’s criminal justice system: the unlimited authority that judges have to reduce sentences of murderers and other violent criminals. Last Friday, the rules committee of Maryland’s Court of Appeals voted to continue the status quo. Then, last Saturday morning, two-time convicted murderer Michael W. Sears — whose case provided a vivid symbol of why the Maryland legislature should strip judges of any authority to reduce sentences of such violent felons — hanged himself in his prison cell in Upper Marlboro. The sentencing rules contribute to the crime problems.
In 1992, Sears fatally shot his wife, Debra, in their home. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison by Prince George’s County Circuit Judge Joseph Casula. Once behind bars, Sears began a letter-writing campaign to get his sentence reduced, arguing that the murder was an aberration. His campaign persuaded state psychiatrist Neil Blumberg to write a letter to Judge Casula telling him that Sears “is at very low risk to engage in violent behavior if released from incarceration.” In 1999, Judge Casula paved the way for Sears’ early release by reducing his sentence to 20 years. In 2001, after serving just nine years behind bars for murdering his wife, Sears was paroled. Just 20 months later, he beat and stabbed his girlfriend to death.
In a letter to Judge C. Philip Nichols Jr., Sears admitted that he had duped Judge Casula and Dr. Blumberg. “Just like some people know how to pass a lie-detector test, I know what to say and write when it comes to a psychological evaluation,” Sears wrote, according to an account in The Washington Post.
Sears was by no means the only convicted killer who has benefited from the power Maryland judges have to reduce sentences — authority that no other state gives its judiciary. Judge Casula ordered the release of Donta Paige, an armed robber, after he served just two years of a 10-year sentence. Paige entered a drug treatment program in Colorado, dropped out and murdered a 24-year-old woman after burglarizing her home.
The Maryland General Assembly, which began its 2004 session on Wednesday, will have the opportunity to consider legislation to reform this intolerable status quo. In recent years, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Vallario and Senate President Mike Miller have torpedoed efforts to ensure that predators like Sears and Paige stay where they belong — behind bars. We urge Gov. Robert Ehrlich and responsible members of the General Assembly to make real sentencing reform a top priority. The legislature and the judiciary have become enablers for criminals — a situation that has stood far too long.
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