MARYLAND
Wesley Eugene Baker
Dec. 5-9, 2005
Wesley Eugene Baker, a black man, is scheduled to be executed the week of Dec. 5 for the 1992 murder of Jane Frances Tyson, a white woman, in Baltimore County, Maryland. Tyson was shot during a parking lot robbery yielding $10.
The Court of Appeals of Maryland denied Baker’s request for a hearing to show that his sentence was unconstitutional. Baker claims that a recent statistical study, commissioned by Gov. Glendening in Sept. 2002 and conducted by Professor Raymond Paternoster of the University of Maryland, shows that the death penalty in Maryland is imposed in a racially biased and unconstitutional way. Baker also argues that the arbitrary application of the death penalty in Maryland violates his Eighth Amendment rights.
According to the study, released in January 2003, the death penalty is 2.5 times more likely to be sought against those who commit black-on-white murders than against those who commit white-on-white murders. Furthermore, the death penalty is 3.5 times more likely to be sought against those who commit black-on-white murders than against those who commit black-on-black murders. In addition, the study also found that Baltimore County is 13 times more likely than Baltimore City to seek the death penalty, 5 times more likely than Montgomery County, and 3 times more likely than Anne Arundel County. Clearly Baker’s case faced possible bias because of his race, his victim’s race, and the county in which he was tried. This is not how the system is meant to work. Executions should not be on the basis of race and geography.
Furthermore, although Baker admits to taking part in the robbery, he maintains that he did not shoot Tyson. An eyewitness at the scene reported that the shooter ran to the driver side of the get away car. When apprehended, Baker was sitting on the passenger side and his co-defendant was sitting in the driver seat. Blood splatters on Bakers coat led to his capital prosecution while his co-defendants clothes were never tested. His co-defendant did not face the death penalty and was instead sentenced to life in prison without parole.
It is also important to look at Baker’s childhood and history. Baker was driven to live on the streets at the age of nine because of his abusive, alcoholic stepfather. Clearly a different childhood could have altered Baker’s unfortunate fate. Although he was certainly involved in a terrible crime, Baker was also the victim of his childhood circumstances and a racially biased system. Baker should not be executed. A life sentence without the possibility of parole is more appropriate in this case.
Please write to Governor Ehrlich on behalf of Wesley Baker.
