On January 24, 2024, St. Mary’s County State’s Attorney Jaymi Sterling testified before the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee in strong support of Senate Bill 26, Criminal Law – Manslaughter by Vehicle or Vessel – Increased Penalties (Jamari’s Law).
The bill proposes to increase the maximum penalty of manslaughter by vehicle or vessel from ten to twenty years, and for any subsequent conviction, from fifteen to thirty years.
The legislation is named in honor of Jamari Duckett of Great Mills, Maryland. In 2022, Jamari was an 18-year-old high school graduate, registered for college and in pursuit of a career in mechanical engineering, when he was tragically and senselessly killed by an intoxicated driver whose braking speed was 91 miles per hour in a 40 mile per hour zone.
The driver was prosecuted in St. Mary’s County and sentenced to the maximum penalty of ten years in prison. However, since vehicular manslaughter is considered a nonviolent crime in Maryland, the driver will be eligible for parole after serving only two and a half years of his ten-year prison sentence.
“I’m a prosecutor … a justice seeker. Part of seeking justice is to come before you [the legislature] when there’s a problem, or there’s an absolute failure in our system,” said State’s Attorney Sterling at the hearing. “There’s nothing else that I can do in my capacity, or any other State’s Attorneys can do. We need your help … Please consider raising the penalties so that we have more to work with, so that we can rehabilitate, so that we can provide deterrence, but so there is also punishment, so that these lives are worth more than [the ten-year criminal penalty which is equivalent to passing] a bad check.”
Sterling testified alongside Jamari’s parents, Shownda Greenwell and John Duckett, several surviving family members of multiple victims of vehicular homicide, and prosecutors from around the State. Each person who provided testimony before the Senate echoed the pleas of the person who testified before them, all in unified support of Jamari’s Law.
On Wednesday, February 7, 2024, at 1:00 p.m., Jamari’s Law will be heard before the House Judiciary Committee. State’s Attorney Sterling is scheduled to testify, again, in strong support of House Bill 264, sponsored by Delegate Brian Crosby, the cross-file of Senator Jack Bailey’s Senate Bill 26.
Community members are encouraged to provide testimony in-person, via Zoom, or by written submission by registering on the Maryland General Assembly website as a witness for House Bill 264 no later than Monday, February 5, 2024, by 6:00 p.m.
State’s Attorney Sterling is grateful to Senator Bailey and Delegate Crosby for their support and partnership on this crucial initiative, and to Jamari’s parents, Shownda Greenwell and John Duckett, who have bravely contributed to spearheading change for all in the name of justice for their son.
