It's tough to get a fair jury. However, we have a system to do that.

If there was a level of community outrage against these individuals, then that may increase the argument for moving it or simply delaying it for a day, a week, a month, or whenever.

Everybody has a strong opinion--particularly in Baltimore City--about police officers, and when they are the criminal defendant and not the witness for the prosecution, that changes things.

To exclude all jurors who would be in the slightest way affected by the prospect of the death penalty would be to deprive the defendant of the impartial jury to which he or she is entitled under the law.

There's nothing normal or fair about any of these methods.

Since most law-abiding citizens had no contact with the parole system, it was not a priority with the state legislatures. And since most of the state's prisoners were either poor or black, and unable to use the system to their advantage, it was easy to hit them with harsh sentences and keep them locked up. But for an inmate with a few connections and some cash, the parole system was a marvelous labyrinth of contradictory laws that allowed the Parole Board to pass out favors.