Prison

John Merzbacher was sentenced to four life sentences for the horrific rape of a young girl ("Supreme Court decisions renew interest in petition fighting convicted child rapist's release," March 22). The recent Supreme Court ruling does not offer an automatic end to his sentence because of insufficient legal counsel about a plea agreement. State and local officials must consider the seriousness of his crimes and keep him in prison. Beyond the rapes of which he was found guilty, there are many untold stories about the vast extent of his abuse of young people.

Richard A. Hartman, former president and CEO of the Automobile Club of Maryland who fought at the Battle of the Bulge, died Feb. 28 of complications from cancer and renal failure at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The former longtime Cedarcroft resident was 91. "Dick was the most ethical person I have ever known. He did everything that was right, and he demanded that out of the people who worked with him. He was truly a wonderful person," said William U. "Bill" Bass, who succeeded Mr. Hartman as president of the Automobile Club of Maryland when he retired in 1987.

Anthony Mayes was nearing age 50 when he got the first suit he ever owned, a dark gray Armani, and it seemed life, at last, would be better. He'd just been released from his latest time behind bars, making it about 22 years of his life total, for an array of charges including drugs and armed robbery. He said he's determined to make his most recent six-month stint his last, and sees the clothes - suit, shirt, tie, dress shoes - as part of that effort. "They make me feel important, like I can succeed," said Mayes, 49, who believes he's been given "an opportunity to redeem myself.

Former Black Panther leader Marshall "Eddie" Conway walked free Tuesday after spending four decades behind bars for killing a Baltimore police officer - making his one of the highest-profile cases affected by a high court decision that has cut short prison sentences for dozens of felons in recent years. Conway, now 67, always said that he was innocent, alleging political motives in the prosecution of a 1970 shooting that killed Officer Donald Sager, 35, and injured another officer.

The letter "Obama should pardon Pollard" (March 18) could not be more wrong when it urges President Barack Obama to pardon the heinous traitor Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a life sentence for causing more harm to U.S. intelligence than any spy had in decades. The writer also has her priorities backward when she says that President Obama needs to "...mend some political fences with Israel and to promote warmer relations with Israeli leaders. " The U.S. gives Israel $3 billion and more every year in military aid, our latest military technology and diplomatic cover at the U.N. for its atrocities against the Palestinians.

Two city drug dealers have been sentenced to prison in separate cases, including one who police said dealt cocaine in a small neighborhood in Northeast Baltimore called the 4X4, according to federal prosecutors. In that case, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said that 30-year-old Tony Robinson, known by "Peterman" and "Pete," was part of a drug group from June 2009 through August 2010 in the area between Edison Highway and Belair Road. Prosecutors said that Robinson pleaded guilty in the case in which he sold 280 grams of cocaine and 5 kilograms of powder cocaine.

A federal judge in Baltimore has dismissed a lawsuit filed by eight state prison workers who claimed a strip search for drugs violated their constitutional rights. The plaintiffs' lawyer said he expects to appeal the opinion entered Thursday by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz. The employees were searched after a drug-sniffing machine falsely signaled they were carrying drugs at the medium-security Maryland Correctional Training Center near Hagerstown in August 2008. The court found that there is no clearly established law regarding the level of suspicion raised by such alerts.

- Nearly 40 years have come and gone since Calvin Ash, a hospital kitchen worker, committed his one and only crime: At the age of 21, he shot to death his estranged wife's boyfriend. A Baltimore judge found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison in 1972. Under the conditions of his sentence, Mr. Ash would one distant day be eligible for parole. Thirty-two years later, in 2004, the Maryland Parole Commission considered and approved Mr. Ash for release. But there was a catch: In Maryland, the governor can reject the commission's recommendations and, unfortunately for Mr. Ash, his case did not reach the governor's desk until after Martin O'Malley had been elected, in 2006.

Two men and a woman have been convicted of being part of a violent drug gang that was run out of a Western Maryland prison. A federal jury convicted 23-year-old Tavon Mouzone and 24-year-old Anthony Fleming of racketeering conspiracy on Thursday. Their co-defendant, 25-year-old Michelle Hebron, pleaded guilty to the same charge on the second day of their trial. Among the acts Hebron admitted to was the 2007 shooting death of David Moore in Hagerstown. Prosecutors described Hebron as a high-ranking female member of the Tree Top Piru Bloods gang.

The recent rulings by theU.S. Supreme Courtregarding habeas corpus relief for certain inmates have caused grave concerns and anxiety for the courageous survivors of John Merzbacher, as indicated by the many victims who have contacted us over the past several days. During my four-plus years as archbishop of Baltimore, I had the privilege of meeting with several of John Merzbacher's victims and their families, who recounted for me their tragic and painful abuse. It is clear to me that the abuse they suffered has had an enormous impact on their lives and the lives of their families, and I fear that they will suffer anew if Mr. Merzbacher's request to be released is granted.

Israeli police shot dead a prisoner who was a native of Maryland after he wounded three guards with a pistol at a jail near Tel Aviv Sunday, police said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Samuel Sheinbein, serving a sentence for a 1997 Maryland murder, had shot the three security officers, leaving one critically injured. Israeli security forces "returned fire and shot and killed the suspect," Rosenfeld said. Israeli media said Sheinbein, in his early 30s, had barricaded himself inside a bathroom in his cell.

An Ellicott City man pleaded guilty Friday to stabbing to death prominent businessman and blogger Dennis Lane, whose daughter asked for the killing because she was "sick" of her father, according to prosecutors. Jason A. Bulmer, 20, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder without making a statement to the court, then listened as prosecutors described a bloody struggle between the two men outside a bedroom in Lane's Ellicott City home as his 14-year-old daughter, Morgan Lane Arnold, stood nearby crying.

After being cleared of a murder for which he spent two decades in prison, Sabein C. Burgess spent some of his first free moments in a dingy carryout next to the city courthouse holding his baby granddaughter, with his family and lawyers swarming around. "There were a lot of times I didn't think I was going to get out," Burgess said. But the evidence - gathered over years - had reached a tipping point. Shortly after Burgess' conviction, another man confessed to carrying out the killing with a notorious hit man. Then two years ago, the victim's son, who witnessed the killing as a boy, came forward to say Burgess didn't do it. And the forensic evidence has been challenged as shaky.

While columnist Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has written some heartfelt words to his son that no doubt come from wanting nothing but the best for him, he has made some assertions that just don't hold water ( "A letter to my son on marijuana," Feb. 16). Those people you saw in the prison whose problems started with addiction, well they didn't start with addiction. Addiction is a sign of mental health problems. If someone doesn't feel comfortable in their own skin, it is a relief to not feel like they normally do. Addictive substances are so alluring because they make the pain go away, if only temporarily.

An Allegany County jury has convicted an inmate at Western Correctional Institution in the fatal beating of his cellmate. Corgiss Ross, 45, was found guilty in the November 2012 murder of Malcolm Jerrod "Rod" Pridget, a prosecutor said Monday. Pridget was taken from the maximum-security Cumberland prison to a local hospital and then to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where he died of his injuries. Pridget, 19, was serving concurrent 18-month sentences on a drug conviction and probation violation.

A tier of the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup remained on lockdown Friday, a day after three inmates were stabbed in an argument among several prisoners. Two men suffered wounds that were not life-threatening. Another man, who was stabbed several times in the upper body, was "seriously injured," but his condition Friday was unknown, said Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Paramedics were summoned to the medium-security prison in the 7800 block of House of Correction Road at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge sentenced a 41-year-old man to life in prison Tuesday for the first-degree murder of a Rosedale woman whom he struck with a pickup truck. Jose Manuel Claros, who was convicted in October, did not admit to the crime at his sentencing. Instead, he blamed his victim and all but called her a liar. Gloria Elsy Torres-Restrepo, 39, died Jan. 5 after Claros struck her with her own pickup truck after she had expressed her intent to end their business and personal relationship, take back the truck from him and evict him from a house she owned in Rosedale.

Michael J. Mikalajunas, who masterminded the 1988 murder of Christopher L. Weathers along a dark roadside at Fort Meade, has been sentenced to 21 years and 10 months without parole in federal prison.Judge J. Frederick Motz imposed the sentence late Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.The defendant collapsed in tears at the hearing, and his mother pleaded for mercy from the court."I think about it every night," Mikalajunas, 21, of Crofton, said of the murder. "I'm sorry for the pain I caused his [Weathers']

A convicted heroin dealer was sentenced Friday to 17 1/2 years in prison and ordered to forfeit luxury cars, jewelry and more than $25,000 in cash. U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Donwand Cuppatino Harmon, 37, of Annapolis, who in a plea agreement said that he had conspired to distribute heroin in Baltimore and Anne Arundel County. "Heroin is a powerful drug that is affecting communities, destroying lives and tearing apart families," Anne Arundel County Police Chief Kevin Davis said in a prepared statement.

A Baltimore man was sentenced to 27 years in prison for a 2009 armed robbery at a Baltimore business that resulted in the owner's death. Pedro Rodriguez Garcia, 35, formerly of Rosedale, robbed Constantine Frank at gunpoint, taking more than $11,000, inside Precision Vending on S. Lakewood Avenue on July 29, 2009, according to court documents. The robbery was planned by Nikolaos Mamalis, 56, of Edgewood, according to evidence presented at the trial. Garcia and Daniel Chase, 67, of New Jersey, entered the store posing as package delivery men, pointed a gun at Frank, tied him up and robbed him, court documents said.