[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----MARYLAND

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 5


MARYLAND----execution

Baker is executed by state----Convicted killer's final appeals rejected by
Supreme Court, state's top court


13 years after he was convicted of killing a teacher's aide at a Baltimore
County mall while her grandchildren looked on, Wesley Eugene Baker was
executed tonight by lethal injection.

State corrections officials announced shortly after 9 p.m. that Baker, 47,
had been executed.

In the hours before the execution, Baker was visited by his lawyer, Gary
W. Christopher, and his mother, Delores Williams, and a social worker.

"He's made his peace," said Christopher. "We just talked quietly. There
was some joking, laughing, trying to inject a little bit of levity into
the situation. But it didn't last long. We talked about how much he
appreciates our effort."

Lori James-Monroe, a social worker who participated in Baker's legal
defense, said she was with Baker this evening at the Metropolitan
Transition Center, near Madison Street and Greenmount Avenue, which houses
the state's death chamber.

She said Baker appeared resigned to his fate.

"He still was hopeful. He was worn down and is tired of wondering,"
James-Monroe said.

Baker's visitors were required to stand behind a red line painted on the
floor, three feet from the door of his cell. But at the end of the visit
the guards permitted his mother to approach the cell. She tearfully hugged
her son through the bars, James-Monroe said.

Condemned prisoners in Maryland are not allowed to request a special last
meal. They eat whatever the prison happens to be serving.

The final obstacles to the execution were removed late yesterday
afternoon, when the Maryland Court of Appeals rejected an emergency stay,
the U.S. Supreme Court declined requests to review three unfavorable lower
court rulings and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. denied Baker's request for
commutation.

In a statement released just prior to the execution, Ehrlich said, "I have
personally reviewed all relevant information about Mr. Baker, his crimes,
and the circumstances surrounding his crimes. I appreciate the sincerity
and thoughtfulness of the arguments presented to me on Mr. Baker's behalf.
After a thorough review of the request for clemency, the facts pertinent
to this petition, and the judicial opinions regarding this case, I decline
to intervene."

"My sympathies tonight lie with the families of all those involved in this
heinous and brutal crime," Ehrlich said. It is the 2nd execution during
his administration.

In the past few weeks, Baker's lawyers had stepped up the pace of more
than 10 years of appeals, arguing that Maryland's death penalty is skewed
by race and geography and that evidence of Baker's abusive and chaotic
childhood in East Baltimore should have been introduced at the sentencing
phase of his trial in 1992.

Cardinal William H. Keeler took the unusual step of visiting Baker on
death row last week, appealing for mercy to Ehrlich, who signed Baker's
death warrant a month ago. Keeler, and other Roman Catholic and mainline
Protestant leaders joined together today to call for commutation of the
death sentence.

"Christians are called to serve Christ in all persons, to strive for
justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every
human being," Robert W. Ihloff, bishop, and John L. Rabb, bishop suffragan
of Maryland, wrote in a letter to Ehrlich.

Baker, who grew up in the Waverly area of Baltimore, was convicted in the
murder and robbery of Jane Tyson, a 49-year-old teacher's aide at a
Baltimore County elementary school. She was shot once in the head in the
parking lot of the Westview Mall on the evening of June 6, 1991.

After shopping for shoes with two of her grandchildren that evening, Tyson
helped the 6-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl into her Buick LeSabre, then
settled in behind the wheel about 8:30 p.m. The gunman appeared at her
window, and police said the boy later recalled hearing his grandmother
scream "No" before she was shot.

The gunman grabbed her purse, which police said contained $10 in cash, and
fled with another man in a blue Chevrolet Blazer. A man who was driving
through the lot when the shooting occurred pursued the Blazer, writing
down a description of the car and the license number, which helped police
make the arrests.

"It was really brazen and awful," S. Ann Brobst, an assistant state's
attorney in Baltimore County who prosecuted the case, said in an interview
last week. Brobst said Baker "obviously intended to kill her from moment
he saw her. The only reason to do it was that she was a witness to the
crime. He was on parole for armed robbery [at the time of the shooting]
and couldn't risk getting caught."

Baker's lawyers continued to argue through their last appeals and a
commutation sent to the governor that evidence did not conclusively show
Baker fired the shot that night. They argued during the trial that no
witnesses identified him and no fingerprints were left on the handgun
found in the Blazer.

Baker's lawyers continued to argue through their last appeals and a
commutation sent to the governor that evidence did not conclusively show
Baker fired the shot that night. They argued during the trial that no
witnesses identified him and no fingerprints were left on the handgun
found in the Blazer.

In her closing arguments at the trial, Baltimore County State's Attorney
Sandra A. O'Connor told the jury: "Don't forget that that Mr. Baker's
fingerprints were the only ones found on the window of Mrs. Tyson's car."

Under Maryland law, only a defendant convicted as the killer -- in this
case, the shooter -- is eligible for the death penalty.

In October 1992, Baker was convicted of 1st-degree murder, robbery and
weapons charges. Several days later he was sentenced to death and two
20-year prison terms.

The trial was held in Harford County Circuit Court because Baker asked
that the proceedings be moved from Baltimore County.

Gregory Lawrence -- who, like Baker, had served prison time for prior
armed robbery convictions -- was convicted of murder, robbery and handgun
charges for acting as lookout and driver in the Tyson killing. He was
sentenced in 1992 to life in prison plus 33 years. Prosecutors said at the
time that Lawrence would have to serve at least 43 years before he could
be considered for parole.

Baker grew up without the guidance of family, church or community in
Waverly, the son of a girl who was raped when she was 12 or 13. By
accounts of his mother, lawyers and 200 pages of official reports and
affidavits, the boy was left to run the streets, turning to alcohol and
drugs before he was a teenager.

After years in the juvenile justice system, he was convicted as an adult
for stealing a car when he was 16 and was sentenced to 3 years. He spent
most of the next 16 years in prison on convictions for car theft and armed
robbery.

On Baker's instructions, his lawyers did not introduce the details of his
childhood at his sentencing in the Tyson killing in 1992. His current
lawyers argued unsuccessfully before the Maryland Court of Appeals that
the previous lawyers' decision effectively deprived Baker of his
constitutional right to effective legal counsel.

Perhaps more significant, Baker's lawyers had hoped that their case would
be supported by a 2003 state-funded University of Maryland study
suggesting that race and geography play a significant role in capital
cases in the state. The study of more than 1,300 cases suggested that the
death penalty is more likely to be applied in cases with a black defendant
and a white victim, and that Baltimore County prosecutors are more likely
than their peers elsewhere to seek the death penalty.

The Baker case is the first to get a hearing before the Court of Appeals
on the basis of the report, but some death penalty opponents were hoping
for more action.

"Absolutely nothing -- and I mean nothing -- has been done, and it's kind
of outrageous," Jane Henderson, executive director of Maryland Citizens
Against State Execution, said last week. "All three branches of government
in Maryland are refusing to deal with this."

Baker's execution was scheduled for early May 2002 but was postponed when
then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening imposed a death penalty moratorium.

Tyson was married with three children and, at the time of her death, 6
grandchildren. She was remembered for her generous spirit and fondness for
the children in her family and the students at Riverview Elementary School
in southwest Baltimore County, where she had worked for 10 years.

"She was like a jewel, a precious jewel," the Rev. Lou Martin of St.
Lawrence Catholic Church, said during the Christian wake service in June
1991.

Betty Ireland, a neighbor in the Catonsville neighborhood of Westview
Park, said last week that Tyson "went out of her way to be kind to people,
not only her husband, her kids and her grandchildren, but everyone."

Tyson was active in her church, which was then St. Lawrence Church in
Woodlawn, and was taking a class to become a Catholic. At the time of her
death, her husband, John Tyson, was principal at Johnnycake Elementary
School.

"People still remember this case," said Brobst, the prosecutor. "It
especially rocked people because it was so cold that you could murder
someone in front of their grandchildren. When you talk about a completely
innocent victim, it could have been you, it could have been me, it could
have been anybody."

Baker becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Maryland and the 5th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in
1994.

Baker becomes the 58th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 1002nd overall since the nation resumed executions on
January 17, 1977.

In 2004, the USA carried out 59 executions. There are 2 remaining
executions scheduled across the nation this month, Dec. 13 in California
("Tookie" Williams) and Dec. 14 in Mississippi (John Nixon). There are
already 8 scheduled executions in the USA for next January.

(sources: Baltimore Sun and Rick Halperin)