Sentence

Carl Snowden, the former director of the Office of Civil Rights at the Maryland Attorney General's Office, reported to jail Friday morning to begin a 10-day sentence for violating probation on a drunk-driving conviction. Retired Judge Diane O. Leasure found March 11 that Snowden, 59, had violated probation in his 2010 drunken driving case in Anne Arundel County because he had been convicted last year of possession of marijuana in Baltimore City. She ordered him to begin his jail term on April 12, but Snowden received permission to begin Friday.

A Baltimore judge sentenced Jason K. Hamel to 50 years in prison for the Federal Hill murder of an alleged drug dealer who tricked him into paying $5,000 for a T-shirt he said was a package of cocaine. The shooting happened in 800 block of Battery Avenue on June 20, 2008 when Hamel, 33, went to meet his victim Keyva Bluitt and two other men to do the supposed drug deal. Hamel picked up the package at around 9:15 p.m. and soon realized the deception, according to the Baltimore state's attorney's office.

Having won approval in both chambers of Maryland's General Assembly, a landmark bill to abolish the state's death penalty awaits only Gov. Martin O'Malley's signature before becoming law. It is a tremendous political and moral victory for Mr. O'Malley, a long-time opponent of capital punishment who campaigned for a repeal during his first term only to come up short. That leaves only one major item of unfinished business on his agenda regarding the issue: Commuting the sentences of the five men currently on Maryland's death row to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

A Frostburg State University student convicted of fatally stabbing another student in 2011 was sentenced Monday to 14 years in prison. Shanee Liggins, at the time a 23-year-old senior business major, stabbed Kortneigh McCoy, 19, at an off-campus party. Witnesses said Liggins threatened another partygoer with a knife and McCoy stepped in to head off the dispute. Liggins pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in December. Her 14-year prison sentence includes anger management treatment and a mental health evaluation, according to court records.

A former vice president of Hebron Savings Bank in Wicomico County was sentenced to 18 months in prison for embezzlement and ordered to pay $456,665 in restitution, federal prosecutors said Thursday. Wanda Henderson, 56, of Westover had used her position at the bank, including her role as executive assistant to president, to manipulate bank records and receive fraudulent loans over a period from 2005 until April 2011, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. Over that time, Henderson had secured 20 fraudulent loans for herself and family members worth more than $680,000, with most of that ending in default, prosecutors said.

Former Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold was led out of a courtroom Thursday with his wrists handcuffed behind his back and his head lowered, bound for the county jail after being sentenced for his misconduct in office conviction and behavior a judge condemned as "outrageous. " Outside the county courthouse, a Leopold supporter said the judge should be fired, while a woman whose lawsuit alleges that she was wrongly terminated by the Leopold administration walked from the building exclaiming, "Pop the champagne!"

Saying John R. Leopold committed "an arrogant abuse of power" by ordering police and other government workers to perform personal and political chores for him, prosecutors are asking a judge to fine the former Anne Arundel County executive $100,000 and sentence him to five years probation and 500 hours of community service. The recommendation by State Prosecutor Emmet C. Davitt comes in a document filed Monday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, where Leopold, 70, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday by Judge Dennis M. Sweeney on two misdemeanor counts of misconduct in office.

It should be obvious to all that the sentence imposed upon Robert Gladden is not due to his actual crimes, heinous as they were, but as a statement in response to the tragedy of Newtown ("High school shooter gets 35 years," Feb. 26). No doubt an extra 20 years was "tacked on" to show the country that Maryland is "tough on crime" and to use the Perry Hall teen-ager as a scapegoat and example for all school shootings. Jim Jagielski, Forest Hill Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

I am grateful that the 17-year-old boy who was shot last year at Perry Hall High School is recovering ("Perry Hall High School shooter Gladden gets 35 years in prison" Feb. 26 2013). And we can all agree that the defendant, Robert Gladden, deserves to be held accountable for injuring a fellow student. But the 35-year prison sentence handed down to a 15-year-old for attempted murder - with no loss of life - should give us all pause and remind us of the danger of trying young people in adult courts.

In the recent article "Perry Hall Shooter gets 35 Years" (Feb. 25) I ask myself, what was Judge Robert E. Cahill Jr. thinking? Trying a troubled 15-year-old boy who made a very bad choice as an adult instead of placing him in the juvenile court system where he would receive the psychiatric help he needs, is a total travesty of justice. Judge Robert Cahill is sending this child to adult prison for 35 years, which is far beyond the legal guidelines. I hope there is enough public outrage to appeal this unreasonable sentence.