Hoping to reduce gun violence in a city with more than 100 homicides this year, federal prosecutors are taking more of Baltimore?s gun cases and winning longer prison sentences for gun-related crimes.
“We?re very optimistic about the prospects” of reducing gun crime through the collaborative Baltimore Exile program, U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said at a press conference Wednesday. The program, which was launched early this year, combines the efforts of local, state and federal officials.
Federal prosecutors are on pace to file 35 percent more indictments against Baltimore defendants this year through the program than in 2005, Rosenstein?s office said. State prosecutors work with them to decide whether, in a given gun-related case, a conviction would lead to a harsher sentence on the state or the federal level.
City defendants also can be persuaded to take state-level guilty plea deals, with letters from federal prosecutors threatening to take their cases over if they don?t.
Thirteen such letters went out between February and May, leading to 10 guilty pleas in cases that carried mandatory five-year prison sentences, the U.S. Attorney?s office said.
“We stand united as a law enforcement unit,” said Baltimore?s State?s Attorney Patricia Jessamy. The program?s collaborative work sends a message to offenders of gun laws, Jessamy said, “that we know who you are, that you?re no longer anonymous” and that prison time awaits.
State and federal officials also have targeted 20 violent offenders in the city, 13 of whom were either detained or face pending charges. And at least 17 defendants have been “exiled” to federal prisons in Oklahoma, New Jersey and other states, serving sentences for gun-related offenses running as long as 27 years, according to the U.S. Attorney?s Office.
The depth of the program?s impact on the street level ? for example, how many would-be gun offenders get the message that “You will do hard time for gun crime,” according to a brochure ? will be known over time, Rosenstein said.
