More News

As the only candidate running for Prince George's County state's attorney who currently works in the county's prosecutorial office, Joseph L. Wright says his view from the inside gives him the expertise to effectively run the office.

One of the things the office needs most, Wright says, is more prosecutors. To ensure the office gets them, Wright promises if elected to halve his own administrative staff from the allotted 10 positions to five, and to use the five openings to hire five prosecutors. The state's attorney's office currently has 75 prosecutors and the highest caseload per prosecutor in the state, said office spokesman Ramon Korionoff. For District Court prosecutors, that means more than 30 cases a day, and for those in the Felony Trial Unit, it could mean 40 to 60 active cases at any given time, Korionoff said.

To bring in additional prosecutors, Wright said he would lobby legislators for more funding.

"You go to the County Council and say this is a safety issue," Wright said.

The added prosecutors would enable Wright to set up new units within the office to tackle issues, such as an elder abuse unit and a narcotics unit. He is also a proponent of assigning community prosecutors, attorneys that would be assigned a geographic region in the county to work with residents on addressing crimes. As a former community prosecutor himself, Wright, 42, of Upper Marlboro said he has seen the benefits firsthand of working with community groups and local police to tackle crime that plagues certain neighborhoods.

Working in the state's attorney's office for 12 years, Wright has prosecuted violent crimes and worked on the community prosecution unit, but is perhaps best known for prosecuting police officers in brutality cases. He prosecuted Keith Washington, the former police officer and Prince George's County homeland security official who shot two furniture deliverymen, killing one of them, at his Accokeek home and was sentenced to 45 years in jail.

"All the successful excessive force cases, he's been involved in," said State's Attorney Glenn. F. Ivey, who is not running for re-election. "He's done a good job for me."

If elected, Wright says he will direct the state's attorney's office to refocus on successful prosecutions and appropriate sentences rather than spreading itself thin with youth intervention or rehabilitation programs.

"When you hear other candidates saying we are going to add these programs, most of the programs will only pull prosecutors from prosecuting crimes ... Those are programs for the county executive to fund," Wright said. "I really want to use my people to prosecute crimes."

More needs to be done to make sure prosecutors are properly prepared for their cases, that evidence has been collected properly by police and that appropriate sentences, including the death penalty in warranted cases, are handed down, Wright said.

Joseph L. Wright

-Position sought and party affiliation: State's attorney, Democrat

-Place of residence: Upper Marlboro

-How long have you lived in the county: 42 years

-Age: 42

-Place of birth: Baltimore

-Current occupation: Assistant state's attorney for Prince George's County, assistant chief in charge of the District Court Division

-Education: Associate's degree from Prince George's Community College; bachelor of arts in political science from Howard University in Washington, D.C.; juris doctorate from Tulane Law School in New Orleans

-Community associations: Member of Prince George's County School Board Ethics Panel; board member of Kettering Civic Foundation; mock trial coach for Fairmont Heights High School; co-chairman of Maryland State Bar Association Leadership Academy

-Professional associations: Member of Maryland State Bar Association; adjunct faculty member for Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park and Prince George's Community College; member of Prince George's County Young Democrats

-Family: Wife, Shawn Wright, two children, Jalen, 11, and Joie, 8

-Campaign office address and telephone: P.O. Box 5251. Upper Marlboro, MD 20775; 240-472-4533

-Website: http://www.josephlwright.com/