A condemned inmate was executed Monday for the fatal shooting of a woman that was witnessed by her grandchildren at a Baltimore County shopping center in 1991.
Wesley E. Baker, 47, died by injection despite arguments from death penalty opponents who said the state had yet to fully review a 2003 study of capital punishment in Maryland. The report concluded race and geography play roles in how death sentences are meted out in the state.
Baker, a black man convicted of killing a white victim in Baltimore County, fit many of the purported disparities revealed by the study.
Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich chose not to commute the sentence, saying late Monday he would not intervene after what he called an “exhaustive and objective review” of Baker’s case.
A flurry of appeals also were rejected by the courts, including to Maryland’s highest court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Baker was convicted of fatally shooting Jane Tyson, 49, for $10 at a mall in Catonsville.
Police found the gun in an SUV that Baker and an accomplice used to flee the scene. Tyson’s blood was also found on Baker’s pants and one of his shoes.
Baker was the fifth person to be executed in Maryland since the 1970s, when the death penalty was reinstated following a Supreme Court decision.
