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| Md. prosecutors want tougher anti-gang law |
| By baltimoresun.com |
| Published: 09/14/2009 |
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As soon as Maryland's Gang Prosecution Act went into effect in 2007, prosecutors in Harford County tested it, filing charges against a group that had stabbed and beaten a man. But when prosecutors couldn't show how the attack had furthered a criminal conspiracy, as required under the new law, the judge balked. They had to drop the gang charges and move forward with simple assault. "It's a very unworkable statute. ... Most prosecutors haven't really bothered to do anything with it," said Harford County State's Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly, who contends that the law is watered-down and useless. "We need to go back through and look at the whole statute and, you know, redraft it correctly." That's been a common refrain among prosecutors since the statute was passed. But now, after a spate of gang-related violence in unexpected areas - the beating of a middle school student in front of his vice principal, the killings of a 14-year-old Crofton boy and a 38-year-old Rosedale man, shootouts on an MTA bus and at the Inner Harbor - prosecutors see their best chance yet at changing the law. This week, several of the state's top law enforcement officials - including Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, Corrections Secretary Gary D. Maynard and Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy - are scheduled to meet with the legislature's House Judiciary Committee, hoping to persuade members to craft a tougher and more useful law. Prosecutors say the law's broad language makes it too difficult to legally define a gang or its members, that its penalties are too weak and that the most basic gang crimes, including handgun and malicious destruction misdemeanors, are not counted as chargeable offenses. Most would rather work around the statute than deal with its cumbersome burden of proof. Read More. |
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