I spoke with Senator Hettleman today. It wasn’t negative, but it was less positive than the conversation with Delegate Moon’s office. 

At first, she was really eager to dissuade me. She pointed out the low rates of recidivism over 60. She reminded me that parole isn’t a guarantee of release, and said she understands victims families don’t like it. She treated me like she assumed I was just bitter and didn’t want Lauren’s killer released for Lauren’s sake  

I asked how many of those people in the recidivism studies were dv abusers and she admitted she didn’t know. I pointed out it’s different from other violent crimes and if you’re asking the parole board to determine the risk of recidivism, they’re going to rely on that study too and it isn’t clear enough. 

I told her that Lauren’s killer is the perfect example of how this bill could fail other women. He has no other criminal history but did abuse other women. He will likely be a model prisoner because there are no women for him to abuse. And we have bad data on the risk of recidivism.

She reluctantly agreed to all of that and asked me to tell her more about Lauren. She was shocked that he was still denying the crime. 

She said she’s not sure how she could write the exception into the bill. I had some suggestions that she was wary of but open to and I suggested that even giving the parole board more concrete advice would be better than nothing. 

We left off with her wanting to see want we come up with for Delegate Moon and also saying she’s going to talk to the parole board this week to get more info on how they’d handle this. 

Long story short: I think this is still very possible but will take some work. She also suggested we reach out to a few of the dv orgs in Maryland and try to get their support and ideas.

Moving forward: we’re going to continue researching and gathering data. We’re also going to reach out to the big DV orgs in Maryland to solicit their help. Finally, we’re going to start reaching out to other Maryland legislators for their support. 

How Can You Help: if you live in Maryland, contact your delegates, senators, etc. Wherever you live: share this petition with everyone. The Senator’s reluctance just emphasizes our need for mass support.