Late last night, The Baltimore Sun reported that a former federal prosecutor has filed papers to run against potential six term incumbent Frank R. Weathersbee for the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney.
Eric Grannon, of Davidsonville is currently a partner in the law firm White & Case in Washington. He has decided to run becasue he feels six terms is too many and is tired of seeing plea bargains with too lenient terms, probation for habitual offenders and not enough cases actually going to trial.
Weathersbee refuted the assertions, “Prosecution is my life. I think we do it very well in Anne Arundel County,” he said, adding, “No, we are not too lenient.”
What do you think? Is Anne Arundel County too lenient? What about the federal reimbursements for each “successfully” prosecuted case? There have been accusations in Tennessee and California that prosecutors would prefer to plea bargain a case “successfully” to claim the reimbursement rather than take it to trial and risk the expense and more importantly an unsuccessful prosecution.
What do you think? Has Weathersbee been in too long? Do you think Anne Arundel County is too lax in their prosecution?
Pleas deals are very popular with lazy lawyers. It’s easier for a prosecutor to strike a plea that take a chance of getting stuck in court on a friday afternoon. Or possibly the docket is jammed docket and must be kept moving to keep costs down.
Eric Gannon sounds like a law and order fascist not concerned about wasting tax dollars and bogging down the system with trials.
Who is Gannon to decide what is too lenient ? He should be specific.
It is my understanding that there is federal money distributed for each successfully prosecuted case. In court, it can go either way. Certainly here in AA the judges are known for their leniency. If a State’s Attorney wants to keep his funding, I would imagine it is a better deal to plea bargain as many cases and call them successful, than to risk a trial and have a weak judge toss the case. Now if there is a slam dunk–that is a different story.
There is no federal money for each successfully prosecuted case. Honestly I don’t know how you can call yourselves journalists when you make up such garbage.
I am a lawyer who works every day in the criminal courts. The defense lawyers would have a field day with Mr. Grannon. He has no idea what he is talking about and has never practiced criminal law in this State. The only reason he is getting Republican support is because he is black and the GOP loves to support insane and/or incompetent black people in this state. Anyone remember Alan Keyes? Or what about Michael Steele? It is a shame that the GOP can’t come up with a real challenger for Mr. Weathersbee who is a rather boring old man. But I would rather vote for Frank as he at least has some clue about how to prosecute people.
In Louisville KY, there was a dust up over just this. I am looking for the link.
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