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| Judge Signs Death Warrant for Maryland Inmate |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/05/2003 |
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Circuit Judge John Turnbull signed a death warrant Monday for Steven Oken, leaving Oken's fate in the hands of Gov. Robert Ehrlich, barring last-minute intervention by the Court of Appeals. Based on what the governor knows about the case, Ehrlich likely would reject a plea for clemency and allow the execution to take place the week of March 17, said Paul Schurick, the governor's communications director. ''Bob Ehrlich ran on a pro-death penalty platform,'' Schurick said. In a statement read by Schurick, Ehrlich described Oken's murder of three women in 1987 as ''brutal and heinous.'' He was sentenced to die by lethal injection for sexually assaulting and killing Dawn Garvin. Oken also was convicted of murdering his sister-in-law in Maryland and motel clerk Lori Ward in Kittery, Maine. He was taken into custody in Freeport, the day after the Ward murder. Ehrlich said he has asked Jervis Finney, his chief legal adviser, to look into the facts of the Oken case and, along with other advisers, including Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, recommend whether the execution should take place. Fred Bennett, Oken's lawyer, said Monday he will ask the Court of Appeals to overturn the sentence. Bennett will argue that the Maryland law is unconstitutional in light of a recent state study finding that the race of the victim and the location where a murder takes place have a substantial effect on whether killers are sentenced to die or get life in prison. He said the law also should be overturned based on a U.S Supreme Court ruling last June that overturned Arizona's death penalty law. Oken is one of 12 men on Maryland's death row. Six men have exhausted their appeals, and a seventh likely will do the same this summer. Maryland has put to death only three men since 1978, but several could be executed this year. Family members and friends of Garvin rallied outside the State House Jan. 10 to ask Ehrlich to reject pleas for clemency for Oken. Fred Romano, her brother, said race is not an issue because Oken and his victim are both white. While Ehrlich supports the death penalty and ended the moratorium on executions imposed by former Gov. Parris Glendening last May, he said he has asked Steele to prepare a report on whether further study is needed of allegations of bias in imposition of capital punishment in Maryland. A University of Maryland study issued earlier this month said prosecutors are much more likely to seek the death penalty if the victim is white, although it found no evidence of bias based on the race of the killer. The study also said there is a geographic disparity, with some prosecutors much more likely than others to seek the death penalty. Steele, an opponent of capital punishment, said he is troubled by the disparities. ''From my perspective, it warrants some additional inquiry of how we go about meting out capital punishment,'' he said. ''There clearly is a linkage to race. There clearly is a linkage to jurisdiction,'' Steele said. ''Why it exists, no one seems to know.'' Death penalty opponents have introduced legislation that would impose a moratorium on executions until the legislature has time to review the University of Maryland study and determine if the law needs to be changed. ''Short of a grant of clemency by the governor, emergency legislation seems the only chance Oken has to escape execution,'' said Richard Dowling, director of the Maryland Catholic Conference. |
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