Four days before Christmas, Rodney Beamon was heinously gunned down in cold blood inside a Fell’s Point bar on December 21st. Surveillance footage captured the event and witnesses identified the shooter as Phillip West, who served 9 years on a federal conviction for drug charges and was prohibited from possessing a firearm at all to begin with. A warrant was issued, West FLED and has been ON THE RUN for three weeks. On January 14th, West finally turned himself in.

This suspect has demonstrated he is the epitome of a flight risk in already having done so. In spite of this and the violent nature of the alleged crime, on January 15th, District Court Judge Michael Studdard released the accused murderer on bail against the recommendation of the State’s Attorney’s office. This decision is as dumbfounding as it is outrageous in the midst of Baltimore’s epidemic crisis of violence, murder rate and general failure of the criminal justice system to remove violent offenders from our streets.

Whether this was some kind of careless, uninformed decision, or politically motivated judicial activism, this decision is nothing short of an utter failure to act in the interest of public safety, and outright neglect of the duty of the office Judge Studdard was appointed to.

Baltimore cannot afford to have accused violent murderers walking among us. We cannot afford to have judges removing any deterrent to violent crime. We cannot afford to have judges so out of touch with reality that their thinking can justify such careless decisions. Judges who think this way are as dangerous to the cycle of violence in Baltimore as the offenders themselves.

Sign and share this petition demanding the immediate resignation of Judge Michael Studdard. We must send a clear message that we will not tolerate judges contributing to the crisis of violence in Baltimore.