Maryland Judicial Equality Committee

Falsely convicted and exonerated via DNA testing, these men were convicted by Maryland prosecutors and judges to satisfy the need to find someone guilty, even if the accused was innocent. The fact that a jury of peers convicted these men, shows the ability of prosecutors and judges to misrepresent the facts and manipulate the rules in such a manner as to render meaningless the concept of Justice. Justice is about finding the truth, the truth only comes in reviewing all the facts dispassionately. In the rush to satisfy public outrage over crime and prove that they were doing "their job", the Maryland judicial system has repeatedly demonstrated it's willingness to take short cuts regardless of the consequences on the citizens it purports to protect.

Kirk Bloodsworth

Kevin Wiggins

Bernard Webster

Moratorium

The question is, how many more innocent people are in jail in which even DNA testing can not be used to prove their innocence? If prosecutors and judges were able convict these men on charges of murder and rape, how much easier is it to convict people on lesser charges? How are we to have faith in a system, that does not respect the civil rights of all human beings? The integrity of the legal process has been compromised by court officials seeking political points regardless of who is harmed in the process.

Below are the examples of judicial custody decisions resulting in the deaths of children. When Judges, Court Investigators, and Guardian Ad Litem have worked together to systematically deny men custodial parental responsibility as evidenced by the statistics recently published by routinely awarding custody of children to women in the majority of cases (61.3%) as opposed to men (10.15%). When the male is African American, the courts award women in a greater majority of the cases (79.91%) as opposed to men (5.64%), virtually half that of whites. It should also be noted that Maryland refused to supply the statistical data to the Federal Government for most of the 6 years the information was requested. It is clear that a system of excuses and procedures are in place to bring about that result.

Mary Utley, Rose Mary Fisher and Frank E. Scarpola, Jr. convicted of the murder and abuse of 9 year old Rita Fisher and child abuse of 15 year old Georgia Fisher

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/marylandstatecases/cosa/1999/1394s98.pdf

Latrena Pixley murdered her six-week old Nakya Scott and then six years later granted custody of her son Cornelious

http://www.ncfa-usa.org/casescontent.html

http://www.vix.com/menmag/batmurdr.htm

http://davidsisler.com/1-10-98.htm

Judges, Court Investigators, and Guardian Ad Litem have been required by Law to seek "The Best Interests of Children", however, by their actions and the results of their decisions have demonstrated that there are no other interests except that of women when it comes to the child. The public policy of the Family Law system is clear, the only viable single parent is a woman.

Since the passage of the Domestic Violence Act in Maryland, judges have admitted that the rate of domestic violence does not decrease but increases violence when they issue Ex Parte' and so called Peace Orders. Applying the current "ham handed" solution of Exparte' to domestic violence is counter productive and in fact precludes other non-violent alternatives. Judges responding to this failure to reduce Domestic Violence have now in violation of accepted legal practice begun preventative detentions under the euphemism of "24 hour cooling off period".

The double standards applied to men and women are most striking when considering a man is typically judged to have an "Anger Issue" as the basis of the Domestic Violence finding and this is used to further punish him by preventing his return to the family home giving Use & Possession of the residence and custody of the children. However, when women are judged to have an "Anger Issue" when it relates to child mistreatment, women are not charged with Domestic Violence and they continue to keep custody of their victims (children). It is clear that politics and gender bias are the underlying basis of judicial decisions in Maryland's so called "Family Law" system.

Alternatives that do not resort to confrontation are more likely to reduce stress, reduce the incidence of violence and therefore bring about a more favorable result for everyone concerned. The Win/Win solution is always the best solution. The insistence on the current combative approach to resolving problems through court imposed settlements by the use of Exparte' reflects a mentality of someone who views the world as Winners and Losers. In such a system, everyone must lose eventually. Worse yet, the most dangerous person in the world is the one who believes they have nothing left to lose. The success or failure of any solution is measured by its results. The current insistence on Exparte' has resulted in the deaths of many people, men, women and children, and has not reduced domestic violence, these are undeniable facts.

The issuance of Protective Orders to protect from violence is in fact incitement to violence:

Chester Dean

Preston Douglas

Ernesto Bamaca

District Commissioners given the power to issue Peace Orders, side step the law by the mis-use of the bail bond system after hours. The Maryland guidelines for bond issuance were consistently disregarded by District Commissioners coercing men to plead guilty in order to obtain freedom from incarceration. These Commissioners would set disproportionately high bail and force the accused to obtain a non-refundable 10% bond from a bondsman. Bail in some cases was set up to $250,000. In some cases, men were forced to stay awake for 30 hours before being released on bond. In many cases men are routinely denied access to legal counsel under the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act, this applies to all counties in Maryland except mysteriously in Montgomery County. Particularly troublesome is the practice of charging men under the criminal statute after business hours, forcing them to post bond, i.e. 10% non-refundable bond, just to drop the criminal charge and then charge them under the Domestic Violence Act during business hours where the likelihood of obtaining a conviction is higher. According to a recent study of the bail bond system "Under Maryland's pretrial release rules, the overwhelming majority of these detainees should have been offered less onerous alternatives and been released without bondsmen."

In the zealousness of wanting to protect women, there continue to be numerous civil rights abuses in Maryland. Guilt by accusation is not the tradition of law in this country, the burden of proof is supposed to lie upon the accuser. Unfortunately, in many cases, judges have taken the position that everyone lies in a hearing (including women) and therefore the benefit of the doubt is given to women. In doing so, many innocent men have lost their homes and children to false accusations of abuse.

A fair and impartial legal system is the only way both parties in a dispute can be afforded protection. Judges need to be reminded that regardless of the offense, our tradition and practice of justice is based upon English Law, i.e. innocent until proven guilty; not Napoleonic Law, i.e. guilty until proven innocent. The burden of proof lies upon the accuser not the accused. The current method of issuing protective orders and domestic violence findings is in disregard to the burden of proof and must be changed to reflect our legal tradition, not political correctness. A dispassionate implementation of the law ensures equal treatment and protection under the law. Dispassionate implementation means clearly setting aside personal prejudices and agendas.

Everyone must be held to the same standard of expectation concerning the law. Just as ordinary citizens can not claim ignorance of the law as an excuse, neither can judges, prosecutors and other court appointed personnel claim ignorance of the facts. The studies of conviction rates, false allegations, child abuse and rates of domestic violence perpetrated by gender have been out for a period of twenty years. Any claim of ignorance of these studies by the court system is negligence since they were responsible to be knowledgeable about the legal system and crime in general. Any claim of denial concerning the studies' validity is gross negligence, since a denial means they knew about the studies but acted in disregard to the facts. The claim that society must do something to halt violence and therefore must act in a discriminatory manner is nothing more than a tactical misdirection for political purposes. There are other options which have been precluded due to the discriminatory behavior of the court system and counselors. There is no excuse to discriminate.

What can I do? You can email your State Senator and Delegate of Maryland and suggest legislation to correct the problem. I'm just one person, my voice doesn't count. You are right, one voice doesn't count, however, like voting, many voices together do count, get your friends to write emails too. When you do, let us know. Also, get involved make your voice count by joining with others trying to change the system. Check out our organizations page, pick a group that focuses on your particular interest.

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