Oken

The Court of Appeals agreed yesterday to review the capital case of Steven Howard Oken, a move expected to delay all executions in Maryland for at least several months. The state's highest court agreed to consider Oken's appeal on constitutional issues. It also denied a request by the state attorney general's office to consider the appeal next month when the court hears arguments for another death row inmate. The ruling means that Oken's appeal is not likely to be heard until next fall and will not be decided until at least several months after that, according to state lawyers.

Convicted killer Steven Oken's lawsuit that argues the state's lethal injection process is inhumane will be heard in a Baltimore County courtroom instead of in Baltimore, the city's administrative judge ruled yesterday. Judges in Baltimore County, where Oken was sentenced to die in 1991, are better suited to hear the lawsuit because they are more familiar with the case, said Baltimore Circuit Judge Marcella A. Holland. "I don't believe the interest of justice is served by a city judge taking over," she said.

Convicted killer Steven H. Oken withdrew his claim of insanity yesterday and pleaded guilty in Baltimore County Circuit Court to murdering his sister-in-law, one of three victims in a 1987 spree of sex slayings.Oken, 29, offered no words of remorse as he confessed to killing his wife's 43-year-old sister, Patricia A. Hirt, on Nov. 15, 1987, just two weeks after murdering and sexually assaulting a young woman in her White Marsh apartment.A statement of facts presented in court said Ms. Hirt went to the Okens' house in White Marsh that afternoon to return a camera she had borrowed to take pictures of her daughter's graduation.

The Supreme Court cleared the way last night for Steven Oken to be put to death by lethal injection, lifting a federal court order upheld hours earlier that would have indefinitely delayed the convicted killer's execution. Barring another legal maneuver by Oken's attorneys or a grant of clemency from Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., Oken may be executed before midnight tomorrow. The Supreme Court's decision came at the end of a day that began with high hopes for Oken. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va., had handed him a victory, upholding a federal judge's decision to grant an indefinite stay of execution.

Steven Oken, scheduled to die next month for the murder in 1987 of a White Marsh newlywed, won a reprieve yesterday when the state's highest court postponed his execution indefinitely in a ruling that could also delay the executions of three other death row inmates. The Maryland Court of Appeals granted a stay of execution by a 6-1 vote, issuing a one-page order that gives Oken's lawyers additional time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a stinging dissent, one judge recommended abolishing the death penalty because "it simply is not worth the aggravation."

Stephen Howard Oken, the former pharmacy clerk who sexually assaulted and murdered three women, has pleaded guilty to killing his sister-in-law.Under questioning from Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge James T. Smith Jr. yesterday, Oken, 29, said he was entering the plea voluntarily and that he had not been pressured into it.Oken, who in January was sentenced to die in Maryland's gas chamber for the Nov. 2, 1987, murder of a White Marsh newlywed, Dawn...

The state's highest court refused yesterday to delay convicted killer Steven Oken's execution, which could take place as early as Monday. Oken, sentenced to death 13 years ago for the rape and murder of a White Marsh woman, appears to have few options in his effort to avoid being put to death by lethal injection. He can request relief from the U.S. Supreme Court, which his lawyers said they plan to do today. On at least three other occasions, the Supreme Court has refused to consider Oken's appeals.

The legal struggle surrounding condemned killer Steven Oken's fate moved at a furious pace yesterday, as a federal judge delayed the execution -- and attorneys for the state promptly appealed so that he may yet be put to death before week's end. A decision from the three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va., could come as early as today. The judges could let stand the lower court decision to hold further hearings in the case next month. Or they could clear the way for Oken to be executed by lethal injection before his death warrant expires at midnight Friday.

Convicted killer Steven Oken has filed a lawsuit in Baltimore Circuit Court challenging the state's lethal injection process, and has asked that a judge postpone his execution - now scheduled for the week of June 14 - while the court evaluates this most recent legal challenge. The move comes only days after Oken filed a similar motion in Baltimore County, the jurisdiction in which he was convicted and, in 1991, sentenced to death for the rape and murder of White Marsh newlywed Dawn Marie Garvin.

Eight days before his execution, Steven H. Oken wrote a sharply worded letter to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. questioning the governor's political courage and asserting that by killing him Maryland would lose an opportunity to stop future murderers. Oken's letter, dated June 9 but not sent until Thursday night, acknowledges his guilt for the "despicable crime" of killing 20-year-old Dawn Marie Garvin and admits he deserved to be punished. However, the overall tone is less apologetic than disdainful - expressing doubt whether Ehrlich could make what Oken called "the difficult choice" of sparing his life.