Execution Set for Black Man in Maryland: Black Prosecutor SELLS OUT

A Prince George's County judge yesterday signed a death warrant for a convicted murderer from Capitol Heights, making him the second man scheduled to be executed in Maryland this year. Heath W. Burch, 35, convicted in the slayings of an elderly couple nine years ago, is scheduled for a lethal injection the week of Dec. 6, according to the warrant signed by Circuit Court Judge Steven I. Platt. His execution would be the first for a crime committed in Prince George's since 33-year-old Lott Glover was hanged for murder in 1953. The judge also granted a stay of execution yesterday and gave Burch 30 days to file appeals. Burch's attorney, H. Mark Stichel, said he will seek to overturn the conviction based on a University of Maryland study that showed death sentences are imposed more often when the victims are white. Burch, who is black, killed an elderly white couple. Death penalty opponents had urged Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey not to submit the death warrant to the judge. But Ivey said he did not want to disregard the verdict of a jury, which sentenced Burch to death in 1996. Maryland law does not compel state's attorneys to forward death warrants to judges, said Kathryn Grill Graeff, chief of the criminal appeals division of the state attorney general's office. "It is within the state's attorney's discretion," she said. Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland political scientist, said the issue could become a political liability for Ivey (D) in a county where half the population opposes capital punishment. A 2004 poll by Bethesda-based Potomac Inc. found that 50 percent of Prince George's residents oppose the death penalty and 36 support it. "This is not going to be very popular in this county," Walters said. "Some people will probably resolve to remember this if he runs for higher office." [more] and [more ]

• MD's Death Penalty = an Unequal Adminstration of Justice. According to the findings of a Governor-commissioned death penalty study conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland and released in 2002, Maryland's death penalty system is tainted with racial bias. As a result of the study in May 2002, Maryland Governor Glendening (D) imposed a moratorium on executions [ more] However, after being elected, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) lifted the ban on the death penalty [more]

Major findings of the MD study included:

• Among the entire universe of death eligible cases, defendants who kill white victims are at significantly greater risk of actually receiving a death sentence.
• The probability that a state's attorney will seek the death penalty is 1.6 times higher when the victim is white than for a black homicide victim
• The probability of a defendant in a homicide receiving a death sentence is twice is great if the victim is white.  Thus a state's attorney is more likely to file a capital case and not withdraw the capital charges when the victim is white than when he or she is black
• State's attorneys are less likely to withdraw their decision to seek the death penalty when the victim is white.
• Black defendants accused of killing white victims are more likely than any other racial combination to be sentenced to death.
• The probability of a state's attorney seeking the death penalty is twice as high in a black defendant/white victim case, and 1.7 times higher in a white defendant/white victim case than it is in a black defendant/black victim case.
• In cases where the death penalty is an option, blacks who kill whites are 2.5 times more likely to be sentences to death than whites who kill whites, and 3.5 times more likely than blacks who kill blacks. [more & SEE study]
• Seven men are currently on Maryland's death row. Five are African American and two are White. [more]
•  Defense plans racial bias appeal; Study to be used to contest Md. Death Penalty [more]
  
• Nationally, although African Americans make up 12% of the population, they account for 42% of current death row inmates. [more]
• When Whites are killed the Death Penalty is More Likely to be Imposed [more]