Local Black Lawyers, Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle in Opposition to Maryland’s 2018 Comprehensive Crime Bill

The following is an urgent call for the community to become involved in an imminent Maryland legislative effort which, according to several activists in the Pan-Afrikan Community I have spoken to, must be stopped.

Attorney Thomas Ruffin’s Analysis of the Maryland Comprehensive Crime Bill, or Zirkin-Hogan Bill

The following message comes from DC/Maryland-area attorney Thomas Ruffin of the International Association of Black Lawyers:

STOP PASSAGE IN MARYLAND OF “COMPREHENSIVE CRIME BILL OF 2018” (SENATE BILL 122)

The community is called to action to stop the Maryland General Assembly from enacting Senate Bill 122, or what the legislature calls the “Comprehensive Crime Bill of 2018”. The House Judiciary Committee in Annapolis was scheduled to mark up the bill on March 27, 2018. Whether you acknowledge the problem or not, Senate Bill 122 hearkens back to the mass incarceration of Black people that Professor Michelle Alexander rightly labeled the “New Jim Crow”. If enacted into law, the “Comprehensive Crime Bill of 2018” shall bring further ruin to poor Black communities that already suffer from police state murder, horrible public schools, dilapidated roads, massive poverty and unemployment, severe underfunding of the four historically Black universities in Maryland, high rates of alcohol and drug addiction, and an alarming crisis with mental illness. Instead of dealing with these issues, Governor Larry Hogan and the Maryland General Assembly propose to exacerbate these problems by enacting tougher penalties for drug and gun offenses.

As of today, Senate Bill 122 would create grossly unfair advantages for state prosecutions, and these unfair prosecutorial advantages would target poor Black boys and men living in Baltimore City and Prince George’s County. For example, Senate Bill 122 would give state’s attorneys a pretrial right to appeal a court order throwing out illegally obtained evidence. In contrast, Senate Bill 122 provides no pretrial appellate right for defendants wrongfully denied a motion to exclude illegally obtained evidence. Moreover, these pretrial appeals would be extremely expensive, such that most defendants would be unable to afford an effective opposition to the government’s pretrial appeal. As for the government, its pretrial appeals would be fully funded by the state. In addition, Senate Bill 122 would jack up Maryland prison time in a racially bigoted way, such that offenses punishable today with up to three years in prison for a Black man or woman would be punishable with ten to fifteen years in prison under Senate Bill 122. The legislation would similarly establish mandatory minimum sentences, such as five to twenty years in prison for first offenses and ten to forty years in prison for second offenses. Senate Bill 122 also would add a number of arbitrary standards for jacked up sentences for illegal drugs, and, after creating these arbitrary standards, Senate Bill 122 proposes sentences of from five years to twenty years in prison for a first drug offense and from ten years to forty years in prison for a second drug offense. Yet, the bulk of the drug prosecutions that would be pursued under Senate Bill 122 would be directed against poor Black and Latino men living in such areas as Baltimore and Prince George’s County, not against wealthy pharmacists, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies peddling fentanyl and other opiates to an addicted public.

Since Maryland police historically target Black people for prison, the public policy proposed in Senate Bill 122 would in effect be geared towards exacerbating the mass incarceration of Black men and women from poor neighborhoods throughout the state. As of today, while Black people make up about 29 percent of Maryland’s population, Black people constitute 70.9 percent of the state’s prison population and about 76 percent of the Maryland prisoners with life sentences. Indeed, in April 2014, Maryland prisons incarcerated about 21,149 people, with about 14,884 of that total being Black people of African descent. This statistic, quite frankly, confirms the racist bigotry of Maryland penal policies. BSenate Bill 122 or the “Comprehensive Crime Bill of 2018” proposes to make these statistics dramatically worse.

Interestingly, Senate Bill 122 appears to be horribly drafted. After all, Senate Bill 122 would exempt police officers, corrections officers, sheriffs, and sheriffs’ deputies from prosecution for carrying a firearm “with the deliberate purpose of” murdering “another person”. Yet, this same bill would allow the arrest and incarceration of others for up to fifteen years in prison for carrying a firearm “with the deliberate purpose of injuring or killing another person”; even if no one actually fired a weapon. Needless to say, this disparity between a police officer carrying a firearm with a murderous intent as opposed to a civilian carrying a firearm with a murderous intent has no reasonable basis. After all, a jealous cop carrying a firearm for the sole purpose of murdering a spouse would be protected from prosecution under Senate Bill 122. On the other hand, a battered Black woman whom police failed to protect from her abusive husband would be subject to up to fifteen years in prison if, while fleeing her spouse, she acquired a gun for the sole purpose of protecting herself. Indeed, the abused woman would face up to fifteen years in prison even if she never fired her weapon.

Oddly enough, Senate Bill 122 offers no protection against police brutality. In other words, Senate Bill 122 responds to the police torture and murder of Freddie Gray in Baltimore with tougher sentences for the Black community whom racist police prey upon. To be sure, Baltimore police broke Freddie Gray’s spine on April 12, 2015. That act of violence resulted in Freddie Gray’s death, a sadistic murder for which no police officer has been punished. As part of this racist trend, Maryland police killed fourteen Black people in 2015 while, in contrast, killing three Whites. In 2016, Maryland police killed another eleven Black people, while Maryland police killed merely five White people during the same period. Senate Bill 122 offers no protection against this spate of racially bigoted police state murder. Quite frankly, Senate Bill 122 offers no protection against the increasing number of “hate crimes” and mass shootings that lawfully armed individuals, including White nationalists, perpetrate in American society. Instead, Senate Bill 122 offers to incarcerate a generation of Black or Latino men and women, and to do so during the 2018 election year so as to make the image of incarcerated Black and Latino men political fodder during Governor Hogan’s reelection campaign.

With these thoughts in mind, I ask that you work with me and others in an ever growing coalition aimed at blocking passage of Senate Bill 122. To stop this legislation, we need to lobby this weekend and next week in person, by telephone, and by email so as to persuade House Speaker Michael Busch and the members of the House Judiciary Committee as chaired by Delegate Joseph Vallario of Prince George’s County to vote down Senate Bill 122. For your information, I list below the state delegates whom we should target for intense lobbying as a black community.

Keep this in mind: We have no time for, nor can we afford, apathy in the face of genocide, whether from a legislative onslaught such as Senate Bill 122, or from something as detrimental as racist slavery and lynchings. Join me now in this fight against injustice.

Sincerely,
Thomas Ruffin, Jr., Member
International Association of Black Lawyers

RUFFIN LEGAL SERVICES
153 Galveston Place, S.W., Suite 4
District of Columbia 20032
(202) 561-2898

CALL, WRITE, & TELEPHONE THE FOLLOWING MARYLAND LEGISLATORS:

House Speaker Michael E. Busch
michael.busch@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3800

Delegate Joseph F. Vallario, Jr. (Chair of House Judiciary Committee)
joseph.vallario@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3488

Delegate Kathleen M. Dumais (Vice-Chair of House Judiciary Committee)
kathleen.dumais@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3052

Delegate Curt Anderson (Baltimore City)
curt.anderson@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3291

Delegate Vanessa E. Atterbeary (Howard County)
Vanessa.Atterbeary@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3471

Delegate Frank M. Conaway, Jr. (Baltimore City)
frank.conaway@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3189

Delegate Angela C. Gibson (Baltimore City)
angela.gibson@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3283

Delegate Jazz Lewis (Prince George’s County)
jazz.lewis@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3691

Delegate David Moon (Montgomery County)
David.Moon@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3474

Delegate Dan K. Morhaim (Baltimore County)
dan.morhaim@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3054

Delegate Susie Proctor (Prince George’s & Charles Counties)
susie.proctor@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3083

Delegate Pam Queen (Montgomery County)
pam.queen@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3380

Delegate Carlo Sanchez (Prince George’s County)
carlo.sanchez@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3340

Delegate Charles E. Sydnor III (Baltimore County)
Charles.Sydnor@house.state.md.us
(301) 858-3802

Text of the Maryland Comprehensive Crime Bill

If you’re interested in reading the actual bill, it can be found here:

http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2018RS/bills/sb/sb0122t.pdf

Because it’s scheduled to go to markup in the Maryland House of Delegates on March 27, you’ll have to check this out right away and/or be a fast reader (I’m a notoriously slow reader).

Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle sponsor Trip to the March on Annapolis Tuesday, March 27

The organization Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (https://www.facebook.com/LBSBaltimore) has long been an important source of analysis of the Maryland legislative agenda for the grassroots community. They sponsored a trip to the Maryland State House for the March on Annapolis for Jobs and Justice on Tuesday, March 27. The Crime Bill was among the issues being confronted, and we hope to provide a more detailed analysis from Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle soon.