Md. Cops Spied on Groups Supporting Peace, Opposing Capital Punishment

Documents released by American Civil Liberties Union show undercover officers with the Maryland State Police spied on peace activists and groups opposing the death penalty.

In some cases the activists’ names were entered in a database of people believed to be terrorists or drug dealers, the Baltimore Sun reports. The spying occurred in 2005 and 2006, according to the documents (PDF).

The targeted groups were a peace organization called the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, and two groups opposing capital punishment, the Baltimore Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the Committee to Save Vernon Evans.

Investigators attended meetings of the death penalty coalition and tailed members of the group supporting Vernon Evans, a death-row inmate. The investigators’ reports were sent to at least seven law enforcement agencies at the federal and local levels.