Anne Arundel County prosecutors are expected to announce today that they will seek the death penalty for two prisoners charged with the July stabbing death of a correctional officer inside the Maryland House of Correction, The Sun has learned.
The decision was made this week, according to sources knowledgeable about the case who asked not to be identified because it is an ongoing investigation. The move follows consultation with the relatives of David McGuinn, the 42-year-old correctional officer who was slain at the maximum-security prison in Jessup.
Prosecutors would not discuss the case, saying only that they planned an announcement regarding it today, and McGuinn's relatives declined to comment.
Lawyers for the two accused prisoners, Lee E. Stephens, 27, and Lamarr C. Harris, 35, said they were not surprised. They said they have not received all of the information about the case nor met with prosecutors to try to dissuade them.
"We are dismayed by the timing of the announcement coming as it does in the middle of election season, and before we have had any chance to present evidence to the state that may mitigate against a decision to seek death in Mr. Stephens' case," Michael E. Lawlor, a lawyer for Stephens, wrote in an e-mail.
He also wrote that the money spent on a death penalty case would be better spent on safety improvements at state prisons.
Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee, a four-term Democrat, is facing an aggressive challenge from Republican David W. Fischer, a criminal defense lawyer.
William M. Davis, an assistant public defender who represents Harris, noted that Weathersbee's office has sought, though not obtained, death sentences in cases in which prisoners have been charged with killing other prisoners. Davis is one of two defense lawyers in an inmate death penalty trial that opened this week in Annapolis.
County prosecutors do not seek the death penalty in every eligible case. They typically go through a process of reviewing the evidence and strength of their case, speaking with the family and contacting defense lawyers.
Stephens and Harris, who have pleaded not guilty, are each charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They are serving life sentences.
Harris is serving three life sentences, plus additional years for a weapons violation, for his role in the August 1989 execution-style murder of two people in a South Baltimore park. Stephens is serving a life sentence plus 15 years for the April 1997 murder of a man outside a Salisbury nightclub.
