Oken

The state's highest court is to hear oral arguments today on a motion to delay the scheduled execution of convicted murderer Steven Oken. Oken's lawyers filed the motion last week with the Court of Appeals seeking to halt the execution while the court considers Oken's contention that the state's lethal injection method violates Maryland law and is unconstitutional. The arguments in Annapolis will be made by Oken's lawyer Fred Warren Bennett, who has gained two previous execution delays for his client, and by lawyers with the Maryland attorney general's office.

Baltimore County prosecutors asked a judge yesterday to sign the death warrant of an inmate convicted in the 1987 killing of a White Marsh woman. Circuit Court Judge John G. Turnbull III said he will decide today whether to sign the warrant of execution for Steven Howard Oken. Oken was sentenced to die in the gas chamber for killing Dawn Marie Garvin, a 20-year-old newlywed, on Nov. 2, 1987. He was also convicted of killing his wife's sister, Patricia A. Hirt, 43, and Lori E. Ward, 25, a motel clerk.

Two death row inmates could have their execution dates set early next week because the General Assembly did not approve a moratorium on Maryland's death penalty. Baltimore County prosecutors -- who won the convictions of more than half the 13 inmates on death row -- plan to ask judges to sign warrants to execute Steven Howard Oken and Wesley Baker. Baltimore County Circuit Judge James T. Smith Jr. will be asked Monday to sign the death warrant for Oken, who could be the first inmate to die by lethal injection in Maryland since Tyrone Gilliam in 1998.

Attorneys for convicted killer Steven H. Oken filed a motion in Baltimore County Circuit Court yesterday asking that a judge postpone their client's execution - scheduled for the week of June 14 - because of what they say are problems with Maryland's lethal injection process. Across the country, there have been a number of recent challenges to the drug combination used in most lethal injections, with defense lawyers and death penalty opponents saying the drugs cause then mask excruciating pain.

Betty Romano gave up her job as a sales manager for Tupperware afterher daughter was killed three years ago.After the slaying of 20-year-old Dawn Garvin, the Abingdon resident recalls, she feared for her own safety, refusing to go out at night alone."

The window, with a curtain drawn behind it, became a mirror. In its reflection: witnesses to an execution. The condemned man's lawyers, Fred Warren Bennett and Michael E. Lawlor, sat on the top row of a small set of prisoner-built bleachers, eyes downcast. Between them, Stefanie McArdle, a public defender who had labored over the case, wept. A retired police detective who 17 years ago investigated the murders of Dawn Garvin and Patricia Hirt, and who flew to Maine after Lori Ward was murdered, sat quietly, his face allowing no expression.

Six years after convicted murderer Tyrone X. Gilliam was put to death by lethal injection, opponents of capital punishment are revisiting that execution as they work to stop another one. At a news conference yesterday outside the state penitentiary complex in Baltimore, the protesters - contending that Gilliam's execution was "botched" - supported convicted killer Steven Oken's contention that the state's method of lethal injection is akin to torture....

FOR THE FAMILY of Dawn Marie Garvin, who was tortured and mutilated before Steven Oken shot her in the head, Thursday night marked the end of 17 years of seeing Oken portrayed as the victim. Let's just cut to the chase and say that right at the top. For death penalty opponents - who have the dubious talent of being noble with the grief of the families of murder victims - it was Oken who was the victim in this matter. Garvin's brother, Fred A. Romano, her father, Fred J. Romano, her mother, Betty Romano, and all her other relatives and loved ones were just statistics.

The Romano family stood outside the old state penitentiary on East Madison Street and chanted "Na, na, na, na, hey, hey, goodbye," as the hearse carrying the body of Steven Howard Oken drove off into the night June 17, 2004. Death penalty opponents who were corralled across the street considered the celebration tasteless. But Fred A. Romano, the brother of one of the three women Oken sexually assaulted and killed in 1987, said that after waiting for 17 years, he deserved some release. "The burden has been lifted," he said that night.