ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Anthony Brown was sworn in as Maryland's first Black attorney general last week, pledging to work to increase equity and dismantle barriers to opportunities for all of the state's citizens.
Brown — a Democrat who is a former congressman, lieutenant governor and state legislator — noted the historic nature of his victory in November, as well as the historic election of Gov.-elect Wes Moore, a Democrat who introduced Brown after the attorney general was sworn in by Gov. Larry Hogan, a term-limited Republican. Moore is the state's first Black candidate elected governor.
Brown tells WUSA9 that one week into the job things are going well.
"I'm settling into the office, I have an extraordinary group of professionals, lawyers and nonlawyers, that are doing extraordinary work representing the state of Maryland," Brown said. "Yesterday we welcomed the General Assembly back. I look forward to working with them over the next 90 days to make sure I have the resources and the authorities to do the job Marylanders elected me to do."
In his acceptance speech, Brown laid out his top priorities as civil rights, public safety and police reform. Brown believes there is an appetite to take action on police reform in the state this session.
"Certainly during the course of this last year, I've heard from a number of legislators -- who I should add have done an extraordinary job in the area of police reform and police accountability. There is an interest in establishing in my office the authority to prosecute police misconduct if an investigation shows that in a police-involved death there in fact was misconduct," Brown said.
Soon after being sworn in as Attorney General, Brown filed a motion on Jan. 9 asking the State Appellate Court to order a new vacatur hearing in the case of Adnan Syed.
Back in September, Baltimore judge ordered the release of Adnan Syed after overturning Syed’s conviction for a 1999 murder that was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial.”
The family of murder victim Hae Min Lee wants a new hearing that the family can attend in-person and address the court — Lee's brother Young Lee appeared via videoconference on short notice during the previous hearing.
Brown said he supports victims' rights.
"Much of protecting rights is making sure that the procedures, that some may say are technical in nature, are followed... While I wouldn't necessarily say it's a technicality, I think it is a process, a procedure that's designed to protect the rights of victims. If we start to ignore those, my fear is that one day we'll never be allowing victims to appear before courts and to make a statement, as was intended by the Maryland General Assembly when they passed the law," Brown said.