If one were to grade the Baltimore state's attorney's office on conviction rates and public relations skills, it would get maybe an F. But if one were to grade State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy and her sidekick spokeswoman Margaret T. Burns on the fine art of political stonewalling - that is, the outright refusal to answer inconvenient questions - the grade would have to be an A+.
Most of us remember the fuss kicked up by statements Ms. Burns made about the Zach Sowers case for an online magazine article dealing with legal issues. Mr. Sowers was beaten into a coma just a few feet from his front door in a gentrified Baltimore neighborhood on the first day of June 2007, by one of four thugs who waylaid him in search of cash and the thrills certain lowlifes get from inflicting harm on helpless victims. He lay in a coma for nine months before dying at age 28. During that time, his attackers reached plea agreements with Ms. Jessamy's office sending three of them to prison for eight years; the one who curb-stomped Mr. Sowers drew a 40-year sentence. Zach Sowers' wife, Anna, was angered by the decision to plea bargain rather than try the case, and she made her displeasure public, which led to the interview in which Ms. Burns played down the extent of the damage done to Mr. Sowers when he was stomped by burly 16-year-old Trayvon Ramos, who, according to a police report, was using the fender of a parked car to brace himself while repeatedly slamming his foot against the back of Mr. Sowers' head.
