Convicted murderer Wesley E. Baker is about to begin his last-minute appeals, because Governor Ehrlich has signed a death warrant for him.
Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has signed a death warrant for condemned inmate Wesley E. Baker, ordering what would be the state's first execution in more than a year and the second since 1998.I wrote at some length about this case, the race angle on crime statistics, and the bias study referred to in today's Post article back in June in Looking for bias in all the wrong places.
Baker's sentence was stayed three years ago to give state-sponsored researchers time to complete an analysis of racial and other inequalities in the application of the state's death penalty law. Ehrlich (R) signed a warrant Thursday for his execution during the five-day period beginning Dec. 5, acting on the same day that prosecutors requested the warrant and choosing the earliest date available under the law.
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