This is the day; this is the final edition of The Baltimore Examiner. It’s been a pleasure writing for all of you.
I’d like to thank Baltimore Examiner Editor Frank Keegan, Editorial Page Editor Marta Hummel Mossburg, Publisher Michael Beatty and Managing Editor Tim Maier for extending my career in journalism.
There are any number of ways I could write a final column, but for my last I’ve decided to focus on some unfinished business in these parts. That first bit of unfinished business: The proposal to have the state legislature pass a law banning the death penalty in Maryland, because it’s wrong, immoral and might lead to us executing an innocent person.
Now most of you reading this know that if the Supreme Court overturns the Roe v. Wade tomorrow, our delegates and state senators would call an emergency session and, within hours, pass a law making abortion in Maryland legal. Yes, many of the same people who fret about executing the innocents on death row — and for the record, Maryland has none of those — have no problem with an abortionist slicing and dicing an innocent unborn child.
The short version of where I’m going with this: The electorate should boot out of office any legislator (or governor) who is “pro-choice” and anti-death penalty.
Unfinished business, part two: This Friday, Feb. 20, make it a point to be in the District Court in the 700 block of Patapsco Avenue if you can. Arrive around 1:45 p.m. Go to room two.
In that room Davon Temple will have a violation of probation hearing. In November Temple pleaded guilty to handgun charges. He got a three-year suspended sentence and three years probation. Earlier this month he was picked up on a charge of possessing marijuana. If he’s found guilty, he would have violated his probation and have to go to prison to serve his time.
It’s nice to know there’s at least one good use for laws criminalizing marijuana.
If Temple’s name sounds familiar, it should. Three years ago Jennifer Morelock and Jason Woycio, a white couple from Carroll County, made a trip to West Baltimore. They never made it back to Carroll County.
Both were fatally shot. A Western District police lieutenant, acting on a tip, stopped Temple later the same day. According to the police officer’s story, Temple gave his consent to have his cell phone searched for the names and numbers of alleged gang members.
While conducting the search, the lieutenant came across this text message: “I killed 2 white people around my way 2day and 1 of them was a woman.” Temple was arrested and charged with murder.
Within days, he was cut loose, free to roam Baltimore’s streets. The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office said the officer’s search of Temple’s text messages was illegal. It was the danged weirdest application of the exclusionary rule I’ve ever seen in my life.
So there for nearly three years there was either a cold-blooded killer walking Baltimore’s streets, or there was some incredible idiot who was stupid enough to cop to someone else’s murder IN A TEXT MESSAGE walking our streets. Either way, Temple was clearly too dangerous or too stupid to be walking around free. Fortunately for him, being stupid isn’t a crime.
In 2007 Temple was arrested for participating in a little gangbanging between Bloods and Crips outside Walbrook High School. He was charged with trespassing, but the charges were dropped.
Last August he was picked up on those handgun charges. If he’s guilty of violating probation, he’ll serve a couple of years in prison, but that’s nowhere near the punishment he should get if he did indeed murder Morelock and Woycio.
Justice for Morelock and Woycio is Baltimore’s unfinished business. In late 2007 we had people from this city making the trek all the way down to Jena, La., of all places, demanding justice for the “Jena Six.” Not one of those people who made that trip has uttered as much as a mumble about justice for Morelock and Woycio here in Baltimore.
Take a trip to District Court this Friday and see if the state of Maryland can put Temple away even for a measly three years. Even if it does, that’ll be far short of justice for Morelock and Woycio.
Gregory Kane is a columnist who has been writing about Baltimore and Maryland for more than 15 years. Reach him at [email protected].
