BALTIMORE (AP) — Wesley Eugene Baker was executed last night for the 1991 murder of a woman at a Baltimore County shopping center during a robbery, a crime witnessed by the woman’s two young grandchildren.
Baker, 47, died of an injection given to him at the Metropolitan Transition Center in Baltimore. He was pronounced dead at 9:18 p.m., according to a statement released by prison officials.
Baker was executed after a flurry of rejected appeals, including to Maryland’s highest court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
His execution was carried out despite the efforts of death penalty foes, who said the state has yet to fully review a 2003 study of capital punishment in Maryland that concluded race and geography play roles in how death sentences are meted out in the state. The case of Baker, a black man convicted of killing a white victim in Baltimore County, fit many of the purported disparities revealed by the study.
However, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, chose not to commute the sentence, saying he would not intervene in the execution after what he called an “exhaustive and objective review” of Baker’s case.
“My sympathies tonight lie with the families of all those involved in this heinous and brutal crime,” Mr. Ehrlich said before Baker was executed.
About 60 people gathered outside of the prison, some holding candles as a light snow fell. Many ducked into a nearby doughnut shop to get warm.
The protesters carried signs that read, “Don’t Kill for Me;” “Stop the Execution of Wesley Baker;” “Abolish the Death Penalty” and “Not in My Name.”
Some of the inmates at the neighboring Central Booking and Intake Center shouted to demonstrators through a small, broken window, “We love all of you.” Protesters and inmates began chanting, “Don’t kill him!”
Baker was convicted of killing Jane Tyson, 49, during a June 6, 1991, robbery at the Westview Mall in Catonsville, a crime that netted only $10. Two of Mrs. Tyson’s grandchildren were in her car when Baker approached, pressed a gun to her head and pulled the trigger.
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