Gov. Martin O'Malley announced yesterday that former Maryland Attorney General Stephen H. Sachs will head an independent review of state police efforts to infiltrate and monitor activist groups opposed to the death penalty and the Iraq war.
The announcement comes days after lawmakers in Annapolis and on Capitol Hill called for hearings or inquiries into the matter. O'Malley said he took the step to get a "fresh view" of the state police activities that took place during the previous administration and to give the public assurance that the surveillance has been thoroughly investigated.
He also said the review would help in the development of new guidelines and protocols "to safeguard against this waste of resources ever happening again."
Sachs said he hoped to discover the "unvarnished truth" of what happened over the 14 months in 2005 and 2006 when the spying took place. Sachs, a former U.S. attorney, served two terms as state attorney general in the 1980s and later launched an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid against William Donald Schaefer. He retired from private law practice nearly a decade ago and often collaborates with the Public Justice Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy group.
"I have very little knowledge of this matter," Sachs said at a news conference in Annapolis. "I certainly have no prejudgment."
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union has sent mass e-mails to Maryland activists, offering to file formal information requests on their behalf and asking for names of activists who could potentially be listed in surveillance records. ACLU officials said the group is trying to obtain a full accounting of any surveillance done by state police as well as local law enforcement and federal agents.
Details of the state police operation were made public by the ACLU, which sued to get the information. At least two undercover agents monitored and recorded peaceful protests, according to documents released by the organization.
The agents infiltrated the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a peace group; the Baltimore Coalition Against the Death Penalty; and the Committee to Save Vernon Evans, a death row inmate.
State police also entered the names of activists in a law enforcement database of people suspected of being terrorists or drug traffickers, the documents show.
The ACLU notes that nothing in the documents indicated criminal activity or intent by the protesters.
