Ehrlich reduces time for 3 inmates

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. yesterday commuted the sentences of three inmates, including Mary Washington Brown, a 46-year-old Baltimore woman who has spent 30 years in prison of a life sentence for a murder committed when she was 15.

The governor said the commutations of Brown, Walter Henry Arvinger and Clifford Wayne Sewell "are a reflection of my view that Maryland's criminal justice system must be tough but fair."

Brown was convicted of the 1974 murder of Charlotte Ida Lessem, who was stabbed during a robbery by Brown and a co-defendant at a bus station in Baltimore.

The governor's office said she has been an exemplary...