Stop the cycle of crime and prison

We’ve all heard prison horror stories: violence, intimidation, a never-ending quest to preserve one’s manhood. From the outside looking in, it is difficult to confirm or deny any of these accounts. Just the thought of confinement would give most law-abiding citizens the willies. Still, for many Marylanders, incarceration has become a way of life.  Why is this? Why would anyone choose to be locked up in a cage, surrounded by the same sex, and ordered about by a proverbial baby-sitter time and... More

Corruption investigations grind along

The public corruption investigations of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and state Sen. Ulysses Currie remind me of the offense run by former Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes.  Coach Hayes was very conservative. He used a slow, grinding, run-dominated offense known as “three yards and a cloud of dust.” He hardly ever called for a pass as his offense pounded the opposition and gradually moved the ball downfield.  More  Read More →

Working hard and pulling together

The dictionary defines community as a unified body of individuals; people with common interests living in a particular area. During the second half of the 20th century many of Baltimore’s thriving communities were faced with various urban ills, and in some cases the definition of community was lost. One of these communities would be Sandtown in West Baltimore. For African-Americans in the 1940s and 1950s, Pennsylvania Avenue was the cornerstone of local black retail and culture, thriving with 40,000... More

How many ticking time bombs are out there?

As I reflect on the recent Supreme Court decision concerning legal rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees, Abdullah Salih al Ajmi comes to mind. Ajmi is a former Kuwaiti detainee who was held with other suspected terrorists at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo. Ajmi was released but returned to the battlefield on March 23, when he and another Kuwaiti conducted a suicide truck bombing at an Iraqi military outpost in Mosul. Thirteen Iraqi soldiers were killed and 42 wounded in the attack. More  Read More →

Letter to the Editor

Just wanted to drop a line saying how much I enjoyed reading your publication, Exhibit A. As one who is “legally-challenged,” I found your pub to be straight to the point, AND easy to read and comprehend. The issue that I just finished reading was the one on “Grappling With Gangs.” I don’t know if this was your premiere issue or not, as I haven’t seen this pub before. I reside in Harford County and we seem to be a little behind the times on what’s happening elsewhere … which may... More

Everyone counts

Baltimore police are investigating a rash of strangling deaths of women, several of whom have a history of prostitution. Now there are reports in The Examiner that the killings of three more prostitutes in the last five years remain unsolved. In the crime novel “The Last Coyote” by Michael Connelly, the main character, homicide detective Harry Bosch, lives by a simple motto: “Everyone counts.” What he means by that is that every homicide victim, no matter their background or social status,... More

Time to look death in the eye

The governor and legislative leaders have appointed a high-powered task force to study Maryland’s death penalty law and recommend what the state should do about it. It’s about time. Maryland has had a virtual ban on executions since December 2006, not because the governor or legislature decided that should happen but because the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, declared that the procedures for giving lethal injections had not been adopted properly. The court did its job, interpreting... More

Through a child’s eyes

I recently spent an evening doing a ride-along with the Baltimore City Police Department. A call came across the radio for a domestic situation. We pulled up in front of a row house in Remington. I was prepared to wait in the car, but to my surprise, Officer Brown turned to me and said, “Let’s go.” More  Read More →

We don’t want to be L.A. East

The problem is here and the problem is real. The problem is gangs. We may be 3,000 miles from Los Angeles, but we’ve got the Crips and the Bloods, not to mention MS-13 in other parts of Maryland. While there were already troubling indications of the extent of the problem, the drive-by shooting of two small children in early June lodged the issue squarely in the public consciousness. A 2-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl were shot while playing in an inflatable swimming pool in West Baltimore’s... More

Time for answers in Sowers case

The State’s Attorney’s office says it doesn’t want to talk about it any more because it’s a personal matter. Sorry, folks, but it’s not that simple. By publicly questioning the veracity of reports surrounding the beating of Zach Sowers last June that led to his death in March, city state’s attorney spokesperson Margaret Burns ignited a firestorm of controversy that can only be quelled by full disclosure. In last month’s issue of Exhibit A, Burns told our reporter, Melody Simmons, that... More

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