A man convicted of the brutal rape and murder of a college student in the 1980s is fighting to get out of prison using a justice reform law passed in Maryland a few years ago.
The 1982 murder of Stephanie Roper drew national attention and led to a movement for crime victims’ rights.
Roper was a 22-year-old college student whose car broke down along a rural stretch of Route 4 in Prince George's County in 1982. She was abducted at gunpoint, raped and shot. She was tortured for hours, her body mutilated and burned.
Jerry Beatty, then 17, was one of two men accused of the crime. Now 59, he wants a judge to set him free under the Juvenile Restoration Act — passed by the General Assembly in 2021 — which says convicts who were under 18 when they committed a crime and have served at least 20 years can ask a judge for a sentence reduction.
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Roper’s mother, 87-year-old Roberta Roper, told NBC Washington she doesn’t really care about Beatty’s release.
“Long ago, my husband and I forgave both [Jack] Jones and Beatty,” she said. “Not that we forget or excuse or don’t hold them accountable, but we were not going to let them control our lives.”
A champion for crime victims’ rights, Roper takes issue with the law that Beatty is using to ask for release.
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“I think it's for the parole commission to decide if he's a candidate for release into society,” she said.
The state's attorney for St. Mary's County opposes Beatty’s release, citing the heinous nature of the crime.
Beatty's defense attorney argued he is a changed man, radically different from his 17-year-old self.
Multiple people — including a corrections officer and former fellow inmates — testified about his good behavior and how he helped them over the decades in prison.
“It would be hard pressed to find somebody to have negative things to say about him, for anybody that knows him for the person that he is today,” former inmate Gordon Prailow said. “You know, what he did however many decades ago, that person has been erased.”
The hearing will continue Tuesday. The state hasn't started presenting its side, and the victim's mother hasn't given her victim statement, yet.
It’s unknown how long the judge will take to issue a written decision. If the judge doesn't reduce Beatty's sentence, Beatty could ask to be released again in three years.
When the Juvenile Restoration Act passed in 2021, more than 200 prisoners were eligible to apply.
