Expressing their desire to end emo­tion­al­ly strain­ing court pro­ceed­ings, the fam­i­lies of Maryland mur­der vic­tims Betina ​“Kristi” Gentry and Cynthia V. Allen recent­ly urged Anne Arundel County’s top pros­e­cu­tor to end his 3rd attempt to get a death sen­tence for the man accused of killing the two women 10 years ago. ​“They’ve been through so much. I can’t look them in the eye and say, ​‘Nah, you have to relive it again.’ I can’t do that,” said State’s Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee after agree­ing to seek a sen­tence of life with­out parole instead of a cap­i­tal con­vic­tion for Darris Ware, the man con­vict­ed of the crime. Ware’s 1995 death penal­ty con­vic­tion for the crime was vacat­ed in 1997, when Maryland’s high­est court found that pros­e­cu­tors failed to reveal infor­ma­tion about a key pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness who was in jail and hop­ing to reduce his prison term. Ware received the death penal­ty again in 1999, but that sen­tence was void­ed in 2002 because of inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion by Ware’s defense attor­neys. Gentry’s eldest broth­er, Keith, a retired Maryland state troop­er, not­ed that the route to exe­cu­tion is a tor­tur­ous one for fam­i­lies. His expe­ri­ences over the past decade led him to approach oth­er vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers from the case to rec­om­mend that they advo­cate for a sen­tence that would put Ware behind bars for life and end the cycle of tri­als, appeals, and over­turned sen­tences. (Associated Press, August 8, 2004) See Victims. See also, Life Without Parole.

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