The Anne Arundel courtroom was tight with security Thursday as a shackled inmate risked his safety and took the stand to identify a fellow inmate as an attacker in the fatal stabbing of a correctional officer in 2006.
The eyewitness, whose identity the court concealed for his safety, said state police asked him to look through a stack of about 40 photos of inmates who were on his tier of the prison.
The witness, referred to as “Witness B,” said he pointed to a photograph of Lee Stephens, 29, whom he knew from the prison as “Shy,” and told police Stephens ambushed Corrections Officer David McGuinn, 42, on July 25, 2006, at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup.
Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Paul Hackner had debated whether Witness B should testify because of potential threats on his life for identifying a fellow inmate. Witness B was granted a protective order to prevent the defense from knowing where he is being held, and his signature was redacted from the photo identification.
The witness stared straight ahead during testimony, only looking at Stephens when he was asked to describe him.
Six correctional officers, several Anne Arundel sheriff’s deputies and two security guards who were dressed as civilians monitored the hearing, which was the first contact between the inmates since the incident.
Defense attorneys Gary Proctor and Michael Lawlor said the identification should be thrown out because the photo array was too suggestive.
“It should be people he doesn’t know; the point is whether he can pick the person amongst the masses,” Proctor said.
“In there, he’s got [inmates] that he sees on a daily basis.”
The photos also included people of different ages and races who did not resemble Stephens.
But Hackner said the police “never did anything to hint at the person the witness was supposed to identify,” and the witness would not mistakenly identify Stephens because he knew him.
“It would be more suggestive if there were photos of other people he didn’t know and then stuck in four or five people from his [level in prison].”
Hackner is still considering the defense’s other arguments against the death sentence, including inadequate funding to defend Stephens and the risk of executing an innocent person because of a questionable investigation.
Prosecutors said the legal system allows death row inmates multiple appeals and that the risk of wrongful execution is “minimal.”
Hackner is expected to make his ruling in writing at a later date.
