Following last week’s death of a Montgomery County police officer who was wounded in a 2003 shooting, the county State’s Attorney’s Office is expected to review whether additional charges can be brought against the gunman.
Officer Kyle Olinger died at 53 on April 18, succumbing to injuries sustained more than 15 years ago when 18-year-old Terrence Arthur Green shot him during a traffic stop in Silver Spring. Olinger was paralyzed below the chest after the shooting on Aug 13, 2003.
Green was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years for attempted murder, assault and using a handgun during a crime of violence following a September 2004 conviction.
The county State’s Attorney’s Office declined to comment on whether it would press additional charges, choosing to wait until an autopsy is completed to make a decision.
Olinger served two years with the department after six years in the Reading Police Department, according to his Officer Down Memorial Page. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
Police have yet to announce details for funeral services.
In other jurisdictions nationwide, Green could potentially escape additional charges under the common law “year-and-a-day” statute, but the state of Maryland eliminated the rule in 2010. The stipulation refers to the time period in which a defendant is held responsible for the a homicide, elapsing after the person lives for a year plus a day.
“A prosecution may be instituted for murder, manslaughter, or unlawful homicide, whether at common law or under this title, regardless of the time that has elapsed between the act or omission that caused the death of the victim and the victim’s death,” states Maryland code.
The timing of the incident could complicate matters, since it occurred before the rule was specifically abolished in Maryland.
Defense attorneys for Mike Wells cited the rule to argue in a 2006 homicide case in Florida that the defendant wasn’t responsible for the death of his daughter, who suffered permanent brain damage after he shook her as an infant in 1986, according to news reports.
Florida abolished the rule in 1988, two years after Wells’ daughter suffered the injuries that eventually killed her. Wells and his wife were convicted of aggravated child abuse and served less than a year in prison, according to news reports.
A Florida judge rejected the use of the rule, and Wells took a plea deal giving him a 15-year prison sentence, according to news reports.
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin overturned a homicide conviction in 2003 using the rule, while also abrogating it for future cases, according to court documents. Waylon Picotte pled guilty to battery charges after leaving a man in coma following a bar fight, and was then convicted of first-degree reckless homicide when the man died two years later, only to be overturned by the state’s highest appellate court.
