Ivan Bates | |
---|---|
26th State's Attorney of Baltimore | |
Assumed office January 3, 2023 | |
Preceded by | Marilyn Mosby |
Personal details | |
Born | September 1968 (age 55–56) |
Political party | Democratic |
Residence(s) | Locust Point,Baltimore,Maryland |
Education | Howard University (BA) William &Mary Law School (JD) |
Occupation | Defense attorney |
Website | Campaign website |
Military service | |
Branch/service | United States Army |
Years of service | 1986–1988 |
Rank | Private first class |
Unit | 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command |
Ivan Jules Bates [1] [2] (born September 1968) [3] is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the State's Attorney of Baltimore since 2023.
Bates was adopted by his parents, Henry and Cleora, in El Paso, Texas. Due to his father's service in the United States Air Force, his family moved several times, including to Germany, Virginia, and New Mexico, before finally settling in Hampton, Virginia, where Bates attended the segregated Bethel High School, where he graduated with a 1.9 GPA. [4] [5]
After graduating from high school, his father enlisted him in the United States Army, where he was assigned to the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command and worked as a light wheel vehicle mechanic before reaching the rank of private first class. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1988. [4]
After leaving the military, he enrolled at Howard University, where he served as the second president of the Howard University Student Association [6] before graduating with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1992. Afterwards, he attended the William & Mary Law School, where he received his Juris Doctor degree in 1995. While at William & Mary, he clerked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. After graduating, Bates wanted to move back to Los Angeles, California, but his mother asked him to move to Baltimore to take care of his aunt Edna. [4]
Bates started his legal career in Baltimore, working as a law clerk for Baltimore Circuit Court Judge David B. Mitchell. He later worked in the homicide division of the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office under state's attorney Patricia Jessamy from July 1996 to June 2002. [4] [7] He left to become a defense attorney for the law firm of Schulman, Treem, Kaminkow, and Ravenell, and worked on the U.S. Supreme Court case Maryland v. Blake . [4] [8]
In 2006, Bates started his own law firm of Bates & Garcia, P.C., in downtown Baltimore. [4] [9] He represented Baltimore Police sergeant Alicia D. White, one of six police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray in April 2015, and several clients victimized by the corrupt Gun Trace Task Force, whose members in 2017 were federally indicted and convicted of racketeering. [4] [10] In June 2019, Bates testified before the commission to Restore Trust in Policing, recommending a number of state laws to prevent corruption in Baltimore's criminal justice system. [11]
On August 26, 2017, Bates announced his candidacy for state's attorney of Baltimore, challenging incumbent state's attorney Marilyn Mosby. [12] He ran on a platform of supporting community policing and curbing gun violence. [13]
During the campaign, Kristien Miller, a supporter of Thiruvendran Vignarajah, filed a lawsuit against Bates alleging that he was not qualified to run for state's attorney. In March 2018, Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill ruled that Bates had lived in the city since 2016 and was qualified to run for state's attorney. [14] [15]
In May 2018, Bates released a campaign ad in which he claimed that he had "never lost a murder case". [16] He came under fire for this claim, as online court records show that Bates prosecuted eight murders and dropped five of them. Bates defended his claims by providing additional court records that list him as a prosecutor in homicide cases against Lynelle Whiting and Gregory Everett in 2001 and 2002 respectively. [7] In June, he released a list of 11 more cases he claimed as "wins", four of which had ended in convictions. [17] He later threatened to sue the two other candidates in the race, Vignarajah and Mosby, and the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper for defamation, calling the claims made by the candidates related to his murder cases were "absolute lies". [18]
Also in May 2018, Bates told the Rolling Stone that he would drop charges against Adnan Syed, the Serial podcast host who was serving life in prison for his initial conviction in the killing of Hae Min Lee in 1999. [19]
Bates was defeated in the Democratic primary on June 26, 2018, placing second behind Mosby with 28.1 percent of the vote. [20]
On November 18, 2021, Bates announced that he would again run for state's attorney, challenging incumbent state's attorney Marilyn Mosby. [9] [21]
Bates supports improving the technology used in the state's attorney's office, including software programs that would add subtitles to police body camera videos. [9] He unveiled a prosecution plan in March 2022, which includes cracking down on gun violence and restarting prosecutions for nonviolent crimes such as drug possession, prostitution, and trespassing, [22] promising mandatory prison sentences for people convicted on gun charges. He also sought to increase collaboration with the Baltimore Police Department to reduce violent crime. He stressed during the campaign that these policies did not mean the city would be returning to a tough-on-crime mindset that leads to mass incarceration, with many cases being funneled to diversion courts to connect people with alternative treatment services. [23] [24]
During the primary, Bates received endorsements from The Baltimore Sun, [25] former Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon, former mayoral candidate Mary J. Miller, [26] Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson, state delegate Luke Clippinger, and former state's attorney Greg Bernstein. [10]
Bates defeated incumbent state's attorney Marilyn Mosby and Democratic challenger Thiruvendran Vignarajah in the Democratic primary on July 19, 2022, receiving 40.9 percent of the vote. [27] Bates was to face Independent candidate Roya Hanna in the general election, but she dropped out and endorsed Bates shortly after his primary win, clearing his path to victory. [28] [29]
Bates was sworn in as state's attorney on January 3, 2023. [30] On his first day in office, he reversed Mosby's non-prosecution policy for low-level offenses like drug possession, prostitution, and trespassing. [31] [32]
In July 2022, Bates told The Baltimore Banner that he planned drop the controversial case against Keith Davis, Jr., who was scheduled for a fifth murder trial in the fatal shooting of Pimlico Race Course security guard Kevin Jones in 2015. [26] He declined to comment on the case after winning the Democratic primary, saying that "[a]s State's Attorney-elect, I am no longer a private citizen. I must be mindful of the gag order imposed to the current State's Attorney and how it would ethically apply to me". [33] On January 13, 2023, Bates ended the State's Attorney's office's prosecution of Davis, dropping all charges against him. [34]
During the 2023 legislative session, Bates endorsed a bill to increase maximum sentences from three years to five years for people who illegally carry handguns, arguing that it would "ensure fairness under the law and serve as a deterrent". [35] [36] The bill was supported by all elected state's attorneys in Maryland, [37] and opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, faculty of Baltimore law schools, and the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, who cited research from Johns Hopkins University which showed that longer sentences did not deter crime. [38] The bill was later incorporated into the Gun Safety Bill of 2023, which was passed by the Maryland General Assembly in April, [39] and signed into law by Governor Wes Moore in May 2023. [40] In March 2023, Bates endorsed an anti-crime package introduced by the Maryland Republican Party, which included bills strengthening penalties for gun theft and repeat violent offenses. [41]
In July 2023, amid a mass shooting in Baltimore that killed two and injured 28, Bates released a statement expressing his condolences and calling for gun control and policies targeting repeat violent offenders. [42]
During the 2024 legislative session, Bates supported legislation to extend probationary periods for gun crimes committed by juveniles, limit the Child Interrogation Protection Act, and allow state's attorneys to file a motion to modify an incarcerated individual's sentence "at any time". [43] [44]
Bates has two daughters named Brielle and London. [4] [45] He lives in the Locust Point community of Baltimore. [9]
In 2021, Bates' third wife, Lana, filed for a divorce. [4]
Hours before Bates was sworn in as State's Attorney of Baltimore, he was hospitalized and treated for dehydration. Despite this, his swearing-in went as planned. [46]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Marilyn Mosby (incumbent) | 39,766 | 49.4 | |
Democratic | Ivan Bates | 22,619 | 28.1 | |
Democratic | Thiru Vignarajah | 18,130 | 22.5 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Ivan Bates | 34,684 | 40.9 | |
Democratic | Thiru Vignarajah | 25,685 | 30.3 | |
Democratic | Marilyn Mosby (incumbent) | 24,415 | 28.8 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Ivan Bates | 129,961 | 98.2 | |
Write-in | 2,417 | 1.8 |
Anthony Gregory Brown is an American lawyer and politician serving as the attorney general of Maryland. He also served as the U.S. representative for Maryland's 4th congressional district from 2017 to 2023 and as lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for governor in the 2014 election, losing to Republican Larry Hogan in a close race.
Sheila Ann Dixon is an American politician who served as the 48th mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, after mayor Martin O'Malley was sworn in as governor on January 17, 2007. Dixon, then president of the Baltimore City Council, served out the remaining year of her term and won the mayoral election in November 2007. Dixon was the first African-American woman to serve as president of the City Council, Baltimore's first female mayor, and Baltimore's third black mayor.
Jill Priscilla Carter is an American politician and attorney who has served as a member of the Maryland Senate since 2018, representing the 41st district in Baltimore. She previously represented the district in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2003 until her resignation in 2017.
Jon Steven Cardin is an American politician who has served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates representing District 11 since 2019, and previously from 2003 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he unsuccessfully ran for Attorney General of Maryland in 2014. Cardin is the nephew of U.S. Senator Ben Cardin.
Luke H. Clippinger is an American politician and lawyer who has served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, representing the state's 46th district in Baltimore, since 2011.
Mary Lynn Washington is an American politician who has served as a member of the Maryland Senate from District 43 since 2019. She previously represented the district in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2011 to 2019.
Lawrence Joseph Hogan Jr. is an American politician and businessman who served as the 62nd governor of Maryland from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party and son of three-term U.S. representative Lawrence Hogan, he served as chair of the bipartisan National Governors Association from 2019 to 2020.
Hae Min Lee was a Korean-American high school student who went missing on January 13, 1999, in Baltimore County, Maryland, before turning up dead on February 9, 1999, when her corpse was discovered in Leakin Park, Baltimore. Her autopsy revealed that she had been killed by way of manual strangulation.
Marilyn Mosby is an American politician and lawyer who served as the State's Attorney of Baltimore from 2015 to 2023. Mosby gained national attention following the killing of Freddie Gray in 2015, after which she led a highly publicized investigation and unsuccessful murder prosecution of the police officers who arrested and transported Gray.
Nicholas James Mosby is an American politician from Baltimore, Maryland. He is the current President of the Baltimore City Council. First elected to serve on the City Council from 2011 to 2016, Mosby was subsequently appointed in 2017 to the Maryland House of Delegates, representing Baltimore City's 40th District. He was elected as Baltimore City Council President in November 2020, assuming the role in December of that year. Mosby ran for a second term in 2024, but was defeated in the Democratic primary by city councilmember Zeke Cohen.
Glenn Frederick Ivey is an American politician and attorney serving as the U.S. representative for Maryland's 4th congressional district since 2023. The district covers most of the Black-majority areas on the Maryland side of the Washington metropolitan area.
Thiruvendran "Thiru" Vignarajah is an American lawyer and politician. He previously was Deputy Attorney General of Maryland. He is a litigation partner at the law firm DLA Piper in Baltimore. He has also been the lead attorney for the State of Maryland in the post-conviction appeals of Adnan Syed, who was wrongfully convicted of murder in the high-profile 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee. He is a four-time candidate for Baltimore State's Attorney and mayor of Baltimore, having run for both positions twice and being defeated in the primary each time.
The 2020 Baltimore mayoral election was held on November 3, 2020, concurrent with the general election. Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott, the Democratic Party nominee, won a sizable victory over independent candidate Bob Wallace, Republican Party nominee Shannon Wright, and Working Class Party nominee David Harding.
The 2024 United States House of Representatives elections in Maryland will be held on November 5, 2024, to elect the eight U.S. representatives from the state of Maryland, one from each of the state's eight congressional districts. The elections will coincide with the 2024 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate, and various state and local elections. The Democratic and Republican primary elections were held on May 14, 2024.
Elizabeth M. Embry is an American politician who is a member of the Maryland House of Delegates for District 43A in Baltimore. In 2018, she was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, running on the ticket of Prince George's County executive Rushern Baker. In 2016, she was a candidate for mayor of Baltimore.
Roy C. McGrath was an American political operative who served as the director of the Maryland Environmental Service (MES) from 2016 to 2020, and as the chief of staff to Governor Larry Hogan from June to August 2020.
The 2024 Baltimore mayoral election will be held on November 5, 2024, to elect the mayor of Baltimore, Maryland.
On July 2, 2023, a mass shooting occurred in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States, during a Brooklyn Day celebration. Two people were killed and 28 were injured according to police. It is the largest shooting incident in the city's history.
A general election will be held in the U.S. state of Maryland on November 5, 2024. In addition to the U.S. presidential race, Maryland voters will elect all of its seats in the United States House of Representatives, and one of its U.S. senators. Various municipal elections, including in Cecil County, Baltimore, and the city of Hagerstown, will also be held.
Ezekiel Berzoff-Cohen is an American politician who has served as a member of the Baltimore City Council representing District 1 since 2016. Cohen is the Democratic nominee for president of the Baltimore City Council after defeating incumbent city council president Nick Mosby in the Democratic primary election on May 14, 2024.