ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Baltimore Police Officer Keona Holley was killed last year while sitting in her patrol car.
Around the country, police officers are quitting at large numbers.
Maryland lawmakers are working on a bill to let officers know the state has their back.
Last December, Officer Holley was parked in her car picking up an extra shift to help pay bills,
and then the unthinkable happens.
She was killed simply because she was a police officer.
State Senator Bob Cassilly proposed a law in her name.
The Officer Keona Holley Public Safety Act says those who attack police in Maryland shall not be paroled.
The bill does not restrict the authority of the governor to pardon or remit any part of a sentence.
This bill does not add any more time to a person convicted of killing a police officer to the current law.
What it says is to make sure if a person is convicted of that serves out their whole time.
“This bill simply says that we're going to treat you as though you went to court in the federal system, not the state system,” Cassilly said. “You're not going to be eligible for parole. If you get life, you're serving life. If they give you 50 years, you're doing 50 years, 30 whatever. You're serving the time and parole is not eligible.
“We will not tolerate people hunting down and murdering our law enforcement officers who we asked to be out in these dangerous places at all hours of the night.”
If the bill is passed, it will not pertain to any crimes committed before this bill was put into law.
