Oken

A Baltimore County judge moved longtime death row inmate Steven Oken to the brink of execution yesterday, signing a death warrant that schedules the convicted killer to die during the week of June 14. The move came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court quashed Oken's most recent appeal, saying it would not consider his claim that the Maryland Court of Appeals decided a legal issue wrongly in his case. Prosecutors asked Baltimore County Circuit Judge John G. Turnbull II to sign the death warrant as soon as they learned of the Supreme Court's decision.

A Baltimore County judge paved the way yesterday for Maryland's first execution in nearly five years when he agreed to sign a death warrant for convicted murderer Steven H. Oken. It is the first capital case to move forward under Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., whose entry into office last week effectively ended the state's moratorium on the death penalty. Oken, 40, who was sentenced to death in 1991 for the sexual assault and murder of a 20-year- old White Marsh newlywed in 1987, is scheduled to die by lethal injection the week of March 17, according to his lawyers.

A federal judge said he would rule this morning on convicted killer Steven Oken's bid to delay his execution so his lawyers can argue that Maryland's most recent execution raises doubts about the state's lethal injection procedures. Oken's lawyers said in a hearing yesterday that the state provided them with evidence late last week that there had been a leak in the intravenous line that delivered the anesthetic and deadly chemicals during the execution of Tyrone X. Gilliam in 1998. Lawyers for the state did not deny that a leak had occurred, but asserted that the procedure did not constitute a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

Steven Howard Oken, convicted of killing two women in Maryland and one in Maine in 1987, lost a bid to overturn his death sentence in Baltimore County Circuit Court yesterday, setting the stage for his execution as early as this spring. Oken, in a gray prison jumpsuit, appeared unfazed as two judges issued back-to-back rulings rejecting arguments that he is entitled to a new sentencing hearing. Assistant State's Attorney S. Ann Brobst said she would ask Judge James T. Smith Jr., who presided over Oken's trial in 1991, to sign a death warrant April 16. If Smith signs the warrant, Oken could be executed within four to eight weeks, Brobst said.

The state's highest court denied serial killer Steven Howard Oken's request for a new trial, ruling yesterday that the Baltimore County jury that sentenced him to death in 1991 was properly selected and sufficiently informed.The Court of Appeals rejected claims by Oken -- convicted of killing three women in 1987 -- that Circuit Judge James T. Smith Jr. failed to sufficiently question the jury members about their sentiments regarding the death penalty.Oken also argued that Smith should have told jurors that he already was serving life without parole for a slaying in Kittery, Maine, before they sentenced him to die Jan. 25, 1991.

Next week's scheduled execution of Steven Oken presents a difficult case for all but the most resolute opponents of the death penalty. He fits none of the categories for which recent constitutional challenges have been mounted against the death penalty: He is not poor, black, and was not a minor at the time the crimes were committed. He admitted to the grisly 1987 murder of Dawn Garvin. "This is definitely a poster boy," said Michael Rushford, president of the California-based pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.

Maryland's top court upheld the way the state imposes the death penalty yesterday, dashing the hopes of death penalty opponents and moving Baltimore County killer Steven Oken closer to execution. In its 4-3 decision, the Court of Appeals rejected Oken's appeal - the fourth it has heard - saying last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision Ring vs. Arizona does not affect Maryland's capital punishment system. Oken, along with death penalty opponents, had argued that the ruling, which forced Arizona to change the way it sentenced defendants to death, also meant that Maryland's system was unconstitutional.

Prosecutor Scott Shellenberger stood over a seated Steven H. Oken today in Baltimore County Circuit Court and pointed his finger in Oken's face."Dawn Garvin was murdered with this man's gun, which police found in this man's house," Shellenberger almost shouted, giving a jury his opening statement in the trial of Oken, who is accused of raping and killing Dawn Romano Garvin, 20, on Nov. 2, 1987. The state is seeking the death penalty.Wearing a dark blue suit and glasses that hid his pale expression, Oken, 29, did not look up from the yellow legal pad on which he had been making occasional notes.