Maryland
State law will end time limit on child sex abuse lawsuits
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Gov. Wes Moore signed legislation on Tuesday to end Maryland’s statute of limitations for when civil lawsuits for child sexual abuse can be filed against institutions.
The bill signing comes less than a week after the state’s attorney general released a report that documented the scope of abuse spanning 80 years and accused church leaders of decades of coverups.
Under current law, people in Maryland who say they were sexually abused as children can’t sue after they reach the age of 38.
“There is no statute of limitations on the hurt that endures for decades after someone is assaulted,” Moore, a Democrat, said. “There is no statute of limitations on the trauma that harms so many still to this day, and this law reflects that exact truth.”
The Maryland General Assembly passed the bill last week, hours after Attorney General Anthony Brown released a long-awaited report of nearly 500 pages with details about more than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore abusing over 600 children.
State investigators began their work in 2019. They reviewed over 100,000 pages of documents dating back to the 1940s and interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses.
The measure to end the statute of limitations has been sponsored for several years in Maryland by Del. C.T. Wilson, a Democrat who has testified about being abused in his youth.
“I thank all the survivors that came up year after year and told their stories,” Wilson said.
David Lorenz, the Maryland leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests who attended the ceremony, said he was “thrilled for my fellow survivors.”
“Maryland has stopped saying: ‘Church, tell us what to do,’ and said: ‘People, what do we do?’ We’re not beholden to the church anymore, and we should never have been,” Lorenz said.
Twenty-four states have approved revival periods known as “lookback windows,” which are limited time frames during which accusers can sue, regardless of how long ago the alleged abuse occurred. Maryland’s law creates a permanent window with no time limit.
Marci Hamilton, the founder and CEO of Child USA, a think tank that advocates for better laws to protect children, said she testified to change the law in Maryland 20 years ago.
“This has been an extremely long haul,” Hamilton said, crediting Wilson and victims for persevering. “It was a heavy lift, but they did it.”
The Maryland law, which takes effect Oct. 1, is the only one in the nation that includes some caps for damages, Hamilton said.
For private entities, under the bill, damages are capped at $1.5 million for non-economic damages like pain and suffering, but there isn’t a cap for damages relating to costs for services like therapy. For public entities like school boards and local governments, damages are capped at $890,000.
“This is the first window ever to have caps,” Hamilton said. “We’ve resisted them, but these caps are fair enough.”
The Maryland Catholic Conference, which represents the three dioceses serving Maryland, contended in testimony that the bill is unconstitutional, because of the disparity in monetary judgements.
“The concerns we raised during the legislative session remain, including questions about constitutionality and the disparate treatment between public and private organizations in Maryland,” the conference said in a statement Tuesday.
The Baltimore archdiocese says it has paid more than $13.2 million for care and compensation for 301 abuse victims since the 1980s, including $6.8 million toward 105 voluntary settlements.
In anticipation that the law will be challenged in court, the measure includes a provision that would put lawsuits on hold until the Supreme Court of Maryland can decide on the law’s constitutionality.
Florida
State set to execute ‘ninja killer’ in couple’s 1989 death
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida has ramped up executions under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, with a man known as the “ninja killer” set to die Wednesday for the 1989 slayings of a couple visiting the state from New Jersey.
Louis Bernard Gaskin, 56, was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. by lethal injection for the deaths of Robert Sturmfels, 56, and Georgette Sturmfels, 55, on Dec. 20, 1989, in their Flagler County winter home on Florida’s northeastern coast.
DeSantis has been signing death warrants at a rapid pace this year as he prepares his widely expected presidential campaign. He oversaw only two executions in his first four years in office, both in 2019.
This execution comes six weeks after Donald Dillbeck, 59, was put to death for the 1990 murder of Faye Vann, 44, in Tallahassee, and three weeks before the scheduled execution of Darryl B. Barwick for slaying Rebecca Wendt, 24, in 1986 in Panama City.
Barring any stays for Gaskin and Barwick, it will be the shortest period that three executions have been carried out in Florida since three were put to death within 36 days in 2014 under former Gov. Rick Scott, also a Republican.
It will be the state’s 100th execution since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. There are an additional 297 people on Florida’s death row.
Gaskin, who was dubbed the “ninja killer” because he wore all-black ninja clothing during the crimes, shot his victims with a .22-caliber rifle, investigators said. He was convicted of first-degree murder.
Property that he stole from the Sturmfels’ home — a clock, two lamps and a videocassette recorder — was found at his residence and were intended to be Christmas gifts for his girlfriend, according to investigators. He was also convicted of armed robbery, burglary and the attempted murder that same night of another couple who lived nearby.
Local media reported at the time that Gaskin quickly confessed to the crimes and told a psychologist before his trial that he knew what he was doing.
“The guilt was always there,” Gaskin said. “The devil had more of a hold than God did. I knew that I was wrong. I wasn’t insane.”
Jurors voted 8-4 in 1990 to recommend the death sentence, which the judge accepted. Florida law now requires a unanimous jury vote for capital punishment, although the Legislature could send DeSantis a bill this week that would allow 8-4 jury recommendations for capital punishment.
The state and U.S. supreme courts have rejected appeals Gaskin filed since his death warrant was signed, with the latest denial coming Tuesday.
