An Anne Arundel judge is considering whether to allow a murder witness, whose life could be threatened, to testify against an inmate accused of killing a correctional officer in 2006.
Prosecutors said the witness, referred to as “Witness B,” identified Lee Stephens, 29, as an attacker in the July 25, 2006, fatal stabbing of Corrections Officer David W. McGuinn, 42, at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup.
Defense attorney Gary Proctor planned to call Witness B to the stand Wednesday to ask him whether state police were too suggestive during his photo array identification.
But Judge Paul Hackner reserved his ruling after prosecutor Sandra Howell argued the state police officers could testify to the identification procedure and that putting the witness on the stand was an unnecessary danger to his safety.
“There is a legitimate safety concern with this particular witness,” Howell said.
“There is the phenomena of snitching that occurs within the prison system.”
The witness has a protective order, but Proctor argued that Stephens is facing the death penalty and should be permitted to question the witness about how the identification occurred.
“Do you really think the police are going to come in here and say, ‘Yes, I was too suggestive,’ or ‘Yes, I may have pointed a little more to this one’?” Proctor asked.
“The officer may have simply tipped his hand, and we won’t know unless we call Witness B to the stand.”
Hackner asked Proctor to speak with Witness B and attempt to reach an agreement with the prosecutors by this morning.
He did deny the defense’s request to exclude evidence that state police gathered during a search of Stephens’ prison cell after the homicide, saying inmates have no reasonable expectation of privacy in prison.
“It would be highly impractical to require officers to obtain a warrant each and every time they intended to go into a cell,” he said.
Stephens, who is serving a life sentence for another murder, could face execution if convicted.
His attorneys are arguing against the death sentence in a three-day hearing, saying they are not adequately funded to defend Stephens and that the questionable police investigation heightens the risk of executing an innocent person.
Richard Dieter, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, testified Wednesday that to date, 129 innocent people have been sentenced to death nationwide and later exonerated, including a Maryland man who was freed in 1993 because of new DNA evidence.
The hearing is expected to continue today.
