(Photo: former Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. speaks about the CUA Law/Ehrlich Partnership on Clemency)

On Wednesday, March 7, two former governors, Parris N. Glendening (D) and Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), spoke about criminal justice reform at a breakfast meeting sponsored by the Maryland Alliance for Justice Reform.

In 2013, The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law partnered with Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., to work together to educate governors and their staffs across the country who want to engage more deeply with the issue of executive clemency, to support scholarship and public education regarding executive clemency at the state and federal levels, and through the Innocence Project Clinic & Clemency Project, provide assistance to inmates convicted of violent crimes by filing applications for commutation of sentence or parole on their behalf.

Below is an excerpt from the article, which ran in the Washington Post:

Glendening, former Md. governor, says he was wrong to deny 'lifers' early release

From: The Washington Post
By: Rachel Chason and Ovetta Wiggins
Date: March 7, 2018
. . .
Glendening, who has previously, though more quietly, disavowed his former position, said relegating all prisoners to life without parole means a "loss of hope" for them and their families and a financial burden for residents who pay for the health care of geriatric inmates.

"Whether you are a fiscal conservative or a social progressive or both, this is the right thing to do," Glendening said.

Ehrlich, a lawyer by training, now provides legal services to people seeking pardons or commutations through a partnership at the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University. He said he has focused his advocacy in recent years at the federal level but still believes "states really are a policy laboratory" for reforms.
. . .