Jamie Griffin

The parents of James R. "Jamie" Griffin still visit the woods in the Gunpowder Falls State Park where his body was found in 1990, eight years after their only child disappeared.Others also have made this pilgrimage, and have left tokens in remembrance of the gifted, 17-year-old pianist who was killed in 1982, just before his graduation from Dulaney High School.Somebody even left a neatly painted sign that reads: "May the legend of Jamie Griffin live forever in the hearts and minds of all who enter the Gunpowder River."

Baltimore County prosecutors sought yesterday to restore a death sentence for the man convicted in the 1982 murder of Jamie Griffin, the Cockeysville teen-ager whose body lay undetected in a Gunpowder Falls State Park grave for eight years.But lawyers for Michael Whittlesey, whose death sentence was overturned in 1995 by the Maryland Court of Appeals, said his life should be spared, in large part because he was subjected to severe abuse while growing up.Saying that Whittlesey, now 33, was a "troubled, severely damaged child" of 18 at the time of the slaying, defense lawyer Donald E. Zaremba added, "He had no resources to deal with the insanity in his family."

On September 3, 2007, JOHN H. JR., beloved husband of Paula T. (nee Lewis); devoted father of Jason R. Griffin and John H. Griffin, III, also survived by three grandchildren, Jason R. Griffin, Jr., Jamie N. Griffin and Nathan L. Vogel. A funeral service will be held at the Lassahn Funeral Home, Inc., 7401 Belair Road, on Monday at 11 A.M. The family will receive friends on Sunday 2-4 and 7-9 P.M. Interment Holly Hill Memorial Park.

A judge denied yesterday a request from a man convicted in the 1982 killing of a Baltimore County teenager that his punishment be reduced, seven years after the inmate's death sentence in the crime was voided in favor of a life term. Baltimore County Circuit Judge Vicki Ballou-Watts issued a written order denying the request from Michael Whittlesey, whose attorney argued during a hearing this month that a judge erred in 1984 in sentencing Whittlesey to consecutive prison terms of 10 years and 15 years for robbery and theft convictions stemming from the disappearance of 17-year-old Jamie Griffin.

Michael Whittlesley, the man accused in the 1982 slaying of his high school friend, 17-year-old Jamie R. Griffin, whose remains were found in Gunpowder State Park a year ago, has had a claim of double jeopardy dismissed by a Caroline County Circuit Court judge.Whittlesley, now 27, who is serving a 25-year prison term for the robbery of Griffin, was charged last summer in Griffin's murder, several months after Griffin's remains were discovered buried at the park in Baltimore County.Thelma Thompson, an assistant public defender in Baltimore County, had filed the double-jeopardy motion, arguing that prosecution for Griffin's murder should be barred.

ANNAPOLIS -- With approval from Maryland's highest court, Baltimore County State's Attorney Sandra A. O'Connor yesterday vowed to move quickly to try 28-year-old Michael Whittlesey for killing a Dulaney Valley High School senior 10 years ago.But Whittlesey's public defender said his office may ask the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Whittlesey's trial would constitute double jeopardy.The Maryland Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled 4-3 that a murder trial for Michael Whittlesey would not violate the constitutional prohibition against being tried twice for the same crime.

DENTON -- Baltimore County prosecutors are asking a jury to sentence convicted killer Michael Whittlesey to death because he murdered his friend Jamie Griffin during a premeditated robbery 11 years ago in a secluded part of Gunpowder Falls State Park.But defense lawyers, who claim Whittlesey grew up in a troubled family where physical abuse and alcoholism were commonplace, pleaded with jurors yesterday that the 29-year-old defendant be spared the death penalty and instead be sentenced to life in prison.

DENTON -- A forensic pathologist called by the defense in the murder trial of Michael Whittlesey testified yesterday that it was impossible to tell what caused the death of Jamie Griffin, whose body wasn't discovered until 1990 -- eight years after he disappeared."

DENTON -- Baltimore County police searching for 17-year-old Jamie Griffin in 1982 got countless tips from callers up and down the East Coast. But it was something Michael Whittlesey, Jamie's friend, told his father in a phone conversation that brought their attention back home.Whittlesey, on trial in Caroline County for Jamie's murder,telephoned his father on April 2, 1982 -- the day Jamie disappeared -- and said he was in Washington.Phone records revealed that Whittlesey had made the call from a pay phone outside the Playboy Club in Atlantic City, N.J."

Convicted murderer Michael Whittlesey, who spent more than two years on death row before an appeals court voided his sentence, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison for the 1982 slaying of Jamie Griffin.In rejecting prosecutors' pleas that the death penalty be reinstated, Baltimore County Circuit Judge James T. Smith Jr. said Whittlesey's troubled family life helped make him an immature, impulsive 18-year-old when he killed the Cockeysville teen-ager and buried the body in Gunpowder Falls State Park.