Baltimore City State?s Attorney Patricia Jessamy said Wednesday she?s upset the Maryland House Judiciary Committee killed a bill that would have strengthened Maryland law against witness intimidation.
“Even though we failed this year, witness intimidation continues to be a very serious problem,” Jessamy said.
Jessamy testified in February in favor of a House of Delegates bill, sponsored by Keith Haynes, D-District 44, that would toughen Maryland?s law against witness intimidation to include sentences of up to 20 years, instead of five years, for many crimes against children, domestic violence and sexual assault.
Since January 2005, prosecutors have charged more than 200 criminal cases of witness threats and intimidation, Jessamy told the committee.
But the bill received an unfavorable report earlier this month by the House Judiciary Committee, whosechairman, Joseph Vallario, D-District 27A, did not return a phone call from The Examiner.
The unfavorable report effectively kills the bill.
Jessamy told a meeting of the Baltimore City Criminal Justice Coordinating Council on Wednesday that the issues of domestic violence and gang intimidating have merged, with gang members threatening female victims with their violence.
“All the gang members are there in court, threatening and intimidating the victim,” she said.
In written testimony before the Annapolis committee, Jo Anne Stanton, division chief of the Baltimore City State?s Attorney?s Sex Offense Unit, said some of the most troubling cases of the crime she has seen involve children and victims of sexual and domestic abuse.
“In my 16-year experience with crime victims, I have found that the threats against sexual assault victims ? most of whom know their attackers ? are among the most prevalent and most insidious,” Stanton wrote.
