CANDIDATE PUTS FIGHT ON DRUGS, GUNS FIRST

Former Lawmaker Has History With Battling Crime

It was a death penalty case involving a murder from his old neighborhood
that turned Michael W. Burns off to criminal law, and a stint in the
legislature 15 years later that prompted him to reconsider.

Today, the native Anne Arundel County resident is running unopposed in the
Republican primary for state's attorney and would challenge incumbent Frank
Weathersbee in the general election.

Burns, a 1983 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law, has
practiced civil law for 19 years, representing plaintiffs who are suing
insurance companies, drawing up wills and contracts and doing nonprofit
fundraising on the side.

Burns has never practiced criminal law, a fact he attributes to a case he
worked on in law school involving a defendant's appeal of his conviction
and death sentence for the execution-style slaying of a pharmacist in
Linthicum.

Burns was struck by the brutality of the murder, in which the pharmacist
was forced to walk into the basement where he was shot to death and by the
fact that it occurred about a mile from where he grew up.

"I was in law school doing research to try to help this guy on his appeal,
and that was part of my job as a student," Burns recalled. "I couldn't say
no, but it made me really uncomfortable, and ultimately I decided I'm not
going to do this. I'm not going to take money to keep these guys out of jail."

In addition to shying away from criminal defense work in his practice,
Burns said he also tries to avoid divorce, DWI and drug cases. "I'm very
uncomfortable keeping criminals out of jail," he said.

In 1994, Burns ran for public office for the first time and won a seat in
the Maryland House of Delegates in District 32, on the west side of Anne
Arundel County. It was his assignment to the House Judiciary Committee that
prompted him to begin considering issues of judicial process and gave him a
platform from which to address the state's criminal code.

Burns sponsored or co-sponsored legislation on victims' rights, underage
drinking prevention and hit-and-runs, and he studied the state's penalty
provisions in drug and gun crime cases.

In 1998, Burns lost his bid for reelection when a strong Democratic turnout
statewide allowed the party to regain its majority in the legislature.
Almost immediately, he began eyeing the state's attorney's office.

There he saw an opportunity to fight crime in an office for some autonomy.
"I don't have to convince 11 other people on the committee on the policy,
or anyone in the Senate, or worry about whether the governor's office might
have a problem with it, or make sure that state's attorneys around the
state will enforce it."

If elected, Burns said his two top priorities would be prosecuting drug and
gun crimes. He said he would not plea bargain on weapons charges. Burns
also said he would seek the death penalty in all eligible cases, with two
exceptions: those in which the defendants' family is opposed and those in
which the case is based on the uncorroborated testimony of another defendant.

"I believe it's more fair for the defendant than relying on the judgment of
the state's attorney," Burns said. "If it's eligible, let's take it to the
jury and let the jury decide."

Burns lives in Linthicum with his wife and two daughters.