National Roundup

Maryland
Newspaper gunman gets more than 5 life prison terms
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A man who killed five people at a newspaper in Maryland was sentenced on Tuesday to more than five life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Anne Arundel County Judge Michael Wachs ordered the sentence for Jarrod Ramos, whom a jury previously found criminally responsible for killing Wendi Winters, John McNamera, Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen and Rebecca Smith with a shotgun at the Capital Gazette’s office in June 2018.

Ramos had pleaded guilty but not criminally responsible to all 23 counts against him in 2019, using Maryland’s version of an insanity defense. The case was delayed several times before and during the coronavirus pandemic.

Prior to the sentencing, survivors of the shooting and relatives of the five victims who died in the attack described the pain and loss they have experienced.

Montana Winters Geimer, daughter of shooting victim Wendi Winters, testified how her mother “woke up one morning, went to work and never came back.”

“The day she died was the worst day of my life,” Geimer told Wachs. “The hours spent not knowing if she was alive or dead have lived in my nightmares ever since.”

The assault was one of the worst attacks on journalists in U.S. history.

After a 12-day trial in July, a jury took less than two hours to reject arguments from Ramos’ attorneys that he could not understand the criminality of his actions.

Prosecutors contend Ramos, 41, acted out of revenge against the newspaper after it published a story about his guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of harassing a former high school classmate in 2011. Prosecutors said his long, meticulous planning for the attack — which included preparations for his arrest and long incarceration — proved he understood the criminality of his actions.

Connecticut
Retired judge picked to investigate deadly force by police
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A retired judge who also has served as a prosecutor and public defender was picked Monday to become Connecticut’s first inspector general, a position created to investigate any use of deadly force by police.

Robert Devlin, 71, was chosen from among four finalists after interviews before the Connecticut Criminal Justice Commission.

The commission voted 5-0 to appoint Devlin to the $180,000-a year position.

Devlin told the commission that because of his age and experience, he would not be using the job as a stepping stone and plans to give everyone involved in each investigation “a fair shake.”

“There are people in our society who think the police can do no wrong and there are people in our society who think the police can do no right,” Devlin told the commission. “It’s in that space in between that the inspector general has to work, and let the results speak for themselves.”

Devlin, who was appointed as a Superior Court judge in 1992, served as the state’s chief administrative judge for that court from 2010 to 2017. He is currently the chairman of the Connecticut Sentencing Commission.

As inspector general, Devlin will investigate whether an officer’s use of deadly force was justified and, if it was not, to prosecute the officer. He also is charged with recommending whether an officer’s state certification should be suspended or revoked.

The position was created in a bill approved last year in response to the police-involved deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other Black people. That law also limits circumstances in which deadly use of force including chokeholds can be justified, allows more civilian oversight of police departments and allows lawsuits against officers for violating people’s civil rights, in certain situations.

“For the Inspector General to make meaningful progress toward valuing Black lives by holding police accountable for violence, they must be independent from other prosecutors, their office must be fully funded, they must use their legal power to seek redress for people harmed by police, and they must advocate to eliminate the systems that have shielded police from accountability for decades,” said Claudine Fox, the ACLU of Connecticut’s public policy and advocacy director.

“We hope the first inspector general will set the tone for all who follow by staunchly advocating for and defending each of these requirements for success.”

Missouri
State Supreme Court to rule on abortion initiative maneuver
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Wednesday about whether Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft used an unconstitutional set of laws last year to derail an effort to put the state’s new abortion restrictions on a ballot for a public vote.

The court’s decision could result in a change to the rules governing how citizens can alter the state Constitution, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

The case stems from a ruling in December by Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem, who found that Ashcroft should have given the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and other groups more time to circulate their proposed ballot initiative.

Missouri allows residents to collect signatures, prior to a law taking effect, to trigger a public vote. Ashcroft didn’t approve the referendum effort until mid-August, giving supporters two weeks to collect 100,000 signatures.

Beetem said the law granting Ashcroft the power to “derail” signature gathering is in conflict with the constitution, which gives citizens the opportunity to overturn laws.

The attorney general’s office, which is representing Ashcroft, will argue that the current deadlines are a needed guardrail for the initiative petition process.

The case also spotlights a voting issue that has rankled Republicans in recent years. The House and Senate have debated several proposals that would make it harder for citizens to change the Constitution.