ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Senator Jack Bailey has announced that Senate Bill 26, Criminal Law – Manslaughter by Vehicle or Vessel – Increased Penalties (Jamari’s Law) has officially passed the Senate (46-0). The bill is supported by Senator Bailey, Delegate Brian Crosby, and St. Mary’s County State’s Attorney Jaymi Sterling.
Jamari’s Law proposes to increase the maximum penalty for 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, an 18-year-old of Great Mills, who was tragically killed by a drunk driver in 2022. The driver’s braking speed was 91 miles per hour in a 40-mile-per-hour zone. Jamari was registered for college and in pursuit of a career in mechanical engineering.
The driver was prosecuted in St. Mary’s County and charged with vehicular manslaughter. They were sentenced to 10 years in prison – the maximum penalty in Maryland. However, vehicular homicide is considered a nonviolent crime in Maryland, so the driver will be eligible for parole after serving only two and a half years.
“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 during the January 24, 2024, Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee 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.”
To stay up to date with Jamari’s Law, click here.
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we should be sympathetic about this, but please keep in mind that Annapolis testimony doesn’t have to be factual/ honest/ accurate. If something sounds too good to be true, it might be. You don’t have to raise your hand and swear to tell the truth in Annapolis when you testify before a Committee/ testify about legislation.