Maryland executes Steven Oken; cardinals, bishop had urged mercy

Published: 2004-06-18

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Despite some last-minute legal moves and a high-profile plea for mercy from two Catholic cardinals, a bishop and the papal representative in the United States, the state of Maryland executed convicted rapist and murderer Steven H. Oken June 17. Eight days earlier, Cardinals Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington and William H. Keeler of Baltimore and Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli of Wilmington, Del., released a joint letter in which they asked Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich to commute Oken's sentence to life imprisonment. They noted that "life without parole has been a sentencing option in Maryland death penalty proceedings since 1989" and they asked Ehrlich "to be merciful" and use his powers to change the sentence. The Washington and Baltimore archdioceses and the Wilmington Diocese all include Maryland counties. At a June 9 news conference in Washington, Cardinal Keeler said a similar letter was sent to Ehrlich by Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio to the United States, on behalf of Pope John Paul II.

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