After less than five hours of delib­er­a­tion, jurors in a fed­er­al death penal­ty case in Maryland returned life sen­tences for two men con­vict­ed ear­li­er of fed­er­al drug con­spir­a­cy charges and firearms vio­la­tions. The fed­er­al case against Michael Taylor and Keon Moses was the first time since 1998 that U.S. pros­e­cu­tors in Baltimore had sought a death sen­tence. The life sen­tences for Taylor and Keon con­tin­ue a nation­al trend iden­ti­fied last year by the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project. In an August 2003 report, the Project not­ed that 20 of the 21 most recent fed­er­al death penal­ty cas­es had result­ed in life sen­tences and that fed­er­al juries had vot­ed for life in 38 of 43 cap­i­tal cas­es since 2000. Taylor and Keon, both in their ear­ly 20s, were raised in one of Baltimore’s most dan­ger­ous and noto­ri­ous pub­lic hous­ing com­plex­es. Attorneys for the men pre­sent­ed evi­dence to jurors out­lin­ing their clients’ trou­bling his­to­ry of neglect and drug abuse. (Baltimore Sun, April 29, 2004) See Life Without Parole. See also, Federal Death Penalty.

Citation Guide