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| Maryland Court Delays Execution |
| By Baltimore Sun |
| Published: 02/12/2002 |
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Steven Oken, scheduled to die next month for the murder in 1987 of a White Marsh newlywed, won a reprieve recently when the state's highest court postponed his execution indefinitely in a ruling that could also delay the executions of three other death row inmates. The Maryland Court of Appeals granted a stay of execution by a 6-1 vote, issuing a one-page order that gives Oken's lawyers additional time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a stinging dissent, one judge recommended abolishing the death penalty because 'it simply is not worth the aggravation.' The court ruling was welcomed by death penalty opponents, but it disappointed prosecutors and relatives of the three women who were sexually assaulted and shot to death by Oken. 'I'm very upset. It's just prolonging the agony,' said Betty Romano, whose 20-year-old daughter, Dawn Marie Garvin, was killed by Oken. Romano, a secretary, said she had to leave work early yesterday because she became ill when she heard about the decision.. 'I don't know how much more a family can take,' she said. Michael Stark, a spokesman for the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said that he hopes the ruling will increase calls to halt executions in Maryland. 'I feel very happy that we've dodged this bullet at this point,' Stark said. Oken, who turned 40 recently, would have been the first of the 13 inmates on Maryland's death row to be executed since 1998. He was described in Judge Dale R. Cathell's dissenting opinion yesterday as a 'poster man for the death penalty.' Oken was sentenced to death by a Baltimore County jury in 1991 for killing Garvin in November 1987. He claimed to have amnesia when apprehended, but regained his memory after he was convicted of Garvin's murder. At his sentencing, defense therapists testified that he suffered from a rare case of sexual sadism. In separate trials, he was sentenced to life without parole for killing his sister-in-law, Patricia A. Hirt, two weeks after the Garvin murder; Oken also was given a life sentence in Maine for killing Lori E. Ward, a college student. Assistant State's Attorney S. Ann Brobst, who prosecuted Oken, called the families of all three victims to alert them to the ruling. 'I just don't know how many times you can pick up the phone and give these victims' families news like this,' she said. The decision prohibits state officials from carrying out the death warrant signed Jan. 15 by Baltimore County Circuit Chief Judge John G. Turnbull II until the Supreme Court rules on Oken's appeal. State Assistant Attorney General Gary Bair, head of the criminal appeals division, said it could be several months before the Supreme Court rules on Oken's case. He said that while Oken's appeal is before the Supreme Court, prosecutors are unlikely to seek execution warrants for the three other death row inmates who have nearly exhausted their appeals: Wesley Baker, Anthony Grandison and Vernon Evans. |
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