Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy wants to make the Maryland Gang Prosecution Act of 2007 tougher.  Jessamy and US Attorney Rod Rosenstein appeared on WYPR’s Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast in September to discuss how they are prosecuting organized gangs, and how the current legislation places too high a burden of proof on prosecutors.

Last year I interviewed Page Croyder, a former Assistant State’s Attorney in Baltimore.  During that interview, she credited Rod Rosenstein with many recent successes in crippling gangs both locally and nationwide.  Croyder indicated that much of the local success that the Baltimore area has seen is a result of his office.  In the WYPR interview, Rosenstein demonstrates a comprehensive knowledge of the gang structure and how to attack it in a way that does lasting damage to the organization.  He also comments on how a good partnership with law enforcement is crucial to success, a philosophy that Jessamy would do well to embrace.

Jessamy expressed reservations about the current law, and how it makes it difficult to determine who is in a gang, and who is not, in a court of law.  She recommended an enhanced punishment for those who recruit young people into gangs, and also mentioned a drafting committee that has gotten recommendations from police, prosecutors across the state that is looking at a new law.  Harford County public defender Kelly Casper expressed concern that an enhanced anti-gang statute would encroach on civil liberties.  Jessamy was firm in her recommendations, and, perhaps for the first time ever, I agreed wholeheartedly with her assessment.  Kelly Casper is the Harford County public defender.  I have to ask – what on earth does she know about the realities of fighting a losing battle against gangs in Baltimore City?