The Quick Six: MD Attorney General Douglas Gansler
By Mark Croatti
Douglas Gansler was elected Attorney General in 2006 after spending eight years as State’s Attorney in Montgomery County, where he was involved with several high-profile cases including the Washington D.C., snipers, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and Samuel Sheinbein, the Silver Spring teenager who fled to Israel after having killed, dismembered, and burned another teen. In Montgomery County, Gansler created community-based prosecution, which became a model for other states. Before that, Gansler was an Assistant United States Attorney for six years and was involved in the prosecution of Gueorgui Makharadze, the Republic of Georgia diplomat who killed a 16-year old Kensington girl in a drunk-driving accident in Washington, DC.
What’s Up? Annapolis: Israel refused to extradite Samuel Sheinbein, who plea bargained and is still serving a 24-year sentence in Israel. What would happen if Sheinbein, who is up for parole in five years, attempted to return to Maryland?
Douglas Gansler: He can’t come back here, and he can’t go to any Interpol country. His family moved to Israel, so there is no reason for him to return.
WUA: When the 9/11 attacks occurred, much was made of the fact that local and state law enforcement databases were not connected to national and international anti-terrorism files and that a Maryland state trooper had cited highjacker Ziad Jarrah for speeding on Interstate 95 two days beforehand. Are the databases now linked?
DG: They are now. There is an automatic alert on terrorism suspects sent to all local law enforcement offices by the federal government, and a national DNA database is on the way.
WUA: In the sniper cases against John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, did you see their crimes as an example of the threat states face from Islamic extremism right here at home, since both made references in jail to Osama bin Laden?
DG: Their crimes were not “Islamic” and they weren’t connected to any group. Muhammad was a crazed serial killer whose ultimate goal was to get his child back. Malvo was under his spell, and had converted to Islam but then converted back to Christianity a couple of years later.
WUA: The state legislature has decided to settle the slots issue by referendum. If it passes, do you foresee a rise in crime in the locations where slots are built?
DG: You cannot ignore the byproducts of bringing institutionalized gambling into a state. If it’s done carefully, those concerns can be minimized, but you’ll still have net increases in domestic violence, organized crime, divorce, and unemployment due to gambling addiction. Just look at Atlantic City.
WUA: What is the biggest issue facing Maryland law enforcement today, and what do you want to see happen to deal with it?
DG: Gangs. MS-13 is the most militant and violent, but there are others, and they’re recruiting at a younger and younger level. I started the first gang unit in the state in Montgomery County in 1999, but it’s not a state or local government problem—it’s an international problem. We tend to ignore it because it appears to be gang members killing gang members, but it’s more than that. You have to get involved in the prevention side as well as the law enforcement side. On the prevention side, you have to talk to parents so that they can recognize the signs: nicknames, tattoos, graffiti, certain colored clothing, etc. And you have to get the neighborhood involved by creating afterschool programs, sports leagues, jobs, and other activities to keep kids away from gang recruitment.
WUA: What’s your biggest personal goal as Attorney General?
DA: The environment is where I think I can make a big difference. It’s in worse shape than the rhetoric. It’s been a voluntary approach until now, “Please don’t pollute.” We tend to “collaborate” with neighboring states and hope it goes away. Everyone was afraid to enforce the laws we already have. So we do that, even if results aren’t noticeable right away, and then do more in terms of legislating new laws.
Mark Croatti teaches American Government at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis.