From State Sen. Bob Cassilly:
Dear Harford County Neighbor,
This past week, Marylanders mourned the loss of Deputies Patrick Dailey and Mark Logsdon, who were killed in the line of duty. I was honored to attend their funerals and witness firsthand the incredible outpouring of public support for these brave men and their wonderful families.
As these tragic events testify, public safety must be our top priority. I have been working for several months with the Maryland State’s Attorneys Association on a number of bills that I have introduced to increase public safety. Three of these bills that were recently heard by the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee:
– SB 159 raises the maximum penalty for second degree murder from 30 years to 40 years. Baltimore and Washington, D.C. are currently experiencing dramatic increases in their murder rates, and the effects are being felt throughout Maryland. The vast majority of murders in Maryland are prosecuted as second-degree murders, as it is difficult to obtain a first-degree murder conviction. By increasing the maximum penalty for second-degree murder, courts will have the discretion to sentence murderers to more than 30 years.
– SB 160 increases the penalties on repeat drunk drivers who kill or seriously injure other people. Under existing law, the maximum penalty for homicide by motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol is just 3 years. My bill would raise the maximum sentence to 5 years for drunk drivers who had previously killed someone. Habitual drunk drivers are a menace to our public safety. Drunk drivers who kill on multiple occasions must face escalating penalties.
– SB 156 targets criminals who threaten or harm members of a jury – Passed in the Senate. Our justice system depends on jurors being able to freely evaluate the evidence and reach a fair decision. This is not possible when jurors worry for their safety after they announce their verdict. According to the Maryland judiciary, there were 181 cases of jurors or witnesses being threatened or attacked in the last year. Yet with the current laws, just two of these incidents resulted in convictions. My bill will make it easier to prosecute criminals who make–or carry out–threats against jurors.
Our government’s most basic duty is to keep our people safe. As your state senator, I am working hard to fulfill this duty by ensuring that our police and prosecutors have the funding and legal tools they need to do their jobs. Last year, I was honored to receive the Maryland State’s Attorneys’ Association Senator of the Year Award. With these three bills, and more, I hope to further my efforts to enhance your safety and protect our law enforcement community.
Again, thank you for reading my newsletter. I appreciate hearing your thoughts about what our state government is doing. You can reach me at 410-841-3158, or at Bob.Cassilly@senate.state.md.us. My legislative office is located on 11 Bladen Street; Room 321, James Office Building; Annapolis, MD 21401. Please stop by next time you’re in the area–if I’m not on the Senate floor, I’d like to catch up.
Sincerely,
Sen. Bob Cassilly
Maryland Senate District 34
Harford County
-SB 160- Go get drunk and kill people, multiple times and only have to worry about a 5 year maximum sentence? Wow.
Who cares? You could have a 1,000 year minimum. We all know how the Courts work in this state.
Stet, Nolle that “charge” and go for lesser.
How else would hundreds of violent criminals keep getting re-arrrsted in the piblic
“Thanks Bob”….2 sheriff’s office deputies murdered with a hand gun in approximately 150 years, and you’re using this isolated incident to justify these three bills (and more to come!).
How righteous of you! Thanks for becoming the same self serving shit as most everyone else in “big gubmint”!
The more things change, the more they stay the same……!
My sentiments exactly…”I hope to enhance my efforts to protect your safety….” Go f$@# yourself. These so-called bills do nothing to protect anyone’s safety. How about working on enforcing the laws we already have. Criminals need to receive as well as serve their full sentences -not be let out for good behavior or overcrowding.
5 years maximum for a repeat drunk driver who has killed before? How about 30?
I hate to enter this dialog in view of the very real pain felt by families of the slain deputies, and also the
toxic debate that inevitably results from a public dialog, but there are some things that do need to be said.
First of all, I am in agreement with what is said about drunken driving and people who endanger others on the road. It seems that judges or others in positions to hide something are avoiding the obvious solution which is to put breathalizers into the cars of those convicted of drunken driving the first time. Why is the
House Judicial Proceedings Committee trying to avoid this legislation? How many more innocent persons and officers have to be killed because drunken drivers are not kept off the road? I don’t see anything in
Sen. Cassilly’s comments that mentions this breathalizer remedy. Why is he avoiding it?
Secondly, we are all grieved by the slaying of the two deputies in Harford County, but the solution
is not to tack on more years for first or second degree murder. There are plenty of legal remedies for
murder and this seems to be just crocodile tears and eyewash to convince the public that our legislators
are doing something. As for the shooter of the deputies, he is already dead and additional years in prison won’t do him any harm, obviously.
I am sure the sheriff’s office will do its own investigation but even from the outside it is clear that some precautions were lacking which led to these deputies’ deaths. First of all the suspect was already
a fugitive and should have been considered armed and dangerous even before he was approached. The former wife had also been allegedly shot in the neck by the suspect years earlier and he was wanted in an outstanding warrant for an assault against a Florida police officer. The wife had tipped
off the restaurant but apparently the sheriff’s office did not talk to the wife before going to the restaurant and because of a lack of due diligence the deputies had to pay. I know this is harsh and if I am mistaken please correct me.
Going back to Sen. Cassilly’s proposed legislation, adding a bezillion years to a sentence helps nothing, because the solution is prevention not punishment. Once again, there are too many guns in
circulation that can be accessed by unstable, violent, dangerous persons who have little or nothing to lose when they use them. Even though Maryland has better laws than most states there is still too much gun violence. And the likelihood a gun will be used or threatened against a member of a family is still
too high and higher than it will be used against an intruder in the house. This was another case of threatened domestic violence that turned into public violence. It will take a long time to get this shameful
mess straightened out because now there are so many guns in circulation.
I know Sheriff Gahler feels badly about this loss in Harford County, but he should also look to his own
actions such as auctioning a gun during his own campaign for sheriff. Guns are lethal weapons for heaven’s sake. People get arrested for carrying drug paraphernalia which they can use to kill themselves, but guns are used to kill other people (and they are) but the penalties for using and misusing them are miniscule. When are people going to wise up and make our communities safer? And the same can be asked of people in leadership whose jobs are to protect life and property. We’re not supposed to be living in the Wild West, or maybe we still are.
I know there are some people who will make some very ugly comments but I do know what I am talking about. I covered some 450 true homicide cases for detective magazines and those who are interested can read my books under my pen name Krist Boardman.
Bla bla bla bla bla. Do you have a good editor for your books or are they as unreadable as this tripe?
Maybe you should hold the Maryland Judicial system accountable instead of blaming inanimate objects/tools?
How many of those 450 homicides were committed by legal CCW permit holders? When was the last time you heard on the news about a shooting by someone legally carrying? There are a lot of them out there…even some in MD. I haven’t heard of them causing any trouble.
I didn’t know the “the penalties for using and misusing them are miniscule” I’m pretty sure misusing a gun in MD is a felony…
How much drug paraphernalia did you ingest before typing up that big wall of text? Good grief, you must be a really old dude.
Yea that’s fucking great. Gives the evil state more pig power and screw the citizen. This is our fine semi legal government at work. What a fine bunch of low life , educated, rich pricks.