With Steve’s passing today, some stories where our paths crossed.
He argued a case before the Maryland Court of Appeals seeking to establish a civil Gideon – a right to counsel in civil cases comparable to that right in criminal cases.
After the oral argument, a reporter asked Steve’s client for her thoughts. “Mr. Sachs speaks for me,” she replied.
When the General Assembly enacted an access to counsel bill in landlord-tenant cases last year, I told Steve that “Mr. Sachs still speaks for his clients.”
The very last step in the repeal of the death penalty was for Governor O’Malley to reduce the sentences of the five men on death row to life without the possibility of parole.
We asked the office of Attorney General Doug Gansler if the bill had given the Governor this authority.
Who better to make that legal argument to AG Gansler than former AG Sachs.
We met in Steve’s home to prepare him for his meeting.
That morning, I said it was the law firm of Sachs, Millemann & Rosenberg.
Steve was persuasive.
The AG agreed with our legal analysis, and the Governor commuted the sentences.
I will think of Steve often in the coming months –
At the July 4th parade in Roland Park where I am honored to read the Declaration of Independence and Steve would refer to me as Thomas Jefferson.
At an Orioles game, where no one will know the roster of the 1944 Orioles, the minor league champions, as Steve did.
