Dan Morse writes:
Last year’s murder of a Montgomery County woman at the hands of a violent offender who served barely half his original sentence has inspired Maryland lawmakers to rethink the “good time” provisions that helped set him free.
On Wednesday, when a state Senate committee is set to weigh legislation that could lengthen prison terms, victims’ advocates will raise the case of Shawn Henderson, who left prison in April 2006, about six years after slashing the throats of two people he robbed in Gaithersburg. Those people survived. In April 2008, he fatally shot Lindsay Harvey and left with $40.
“She should still be alive, without question,” Montgomery County Police Capt. Mitch Cunningham said of the 25-year-old woman. “She is the reason that the system must fix itself.”