Md. lawmakers vote to repeal death penalty

Anti-death penalty advocates Sylvester Schieber, left, his wife, Vicki, center, Kirk Bloodsworth, the first American sentenced to death row who was exonerated by DNA, and NAACP President Ben Jealous, right, react after watching the Maryland General Assembly approve a measure to ban capital punishment in Annapolis, Md., Friday, March 15, 2013. / AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

ANNAPOLIS, Md. Maryland lawmakers approved a measure abolishing the death penalty on Friday, and the bill is expected to be signed by the Democratic governor who has long pushed for banning capital punishment in the state.

If the measure is signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley, it will make Maryland the 18th state in the nation to do away with the death penalty.

A repeal bill won final passage from the House of Delegates on Friday. It already had been approved by the Senate.

The House advanced the legislation this week after delegates rejected nearly 20 amendments, mostly from Republicans, aimed at keeping capital punishment for the most heinous crimes.

If passed, life without the possibility of parole would be the most severe sentence in the state.

Supporters of repeal argue that the death penalty is costly, error-prone, racially biased and a poor deterrent of crime. But opponents say it is a necessary tool to punish lawbreakers who commit the most egregious crimes.

Maryland has five men on death row. The measure would not apply to them retroactively, but the legislation makes clear that the governor can commute their sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The state's last execution took place in 2005, during the administration of Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich. He resumed executions after a moratorium had been in place pending a 2003 University of Maryland study, which found significant racial and geographic disparity in how the death penalty was carried out.

Capital punishment was put on hold in Maryland after a December 2006 ruling by Maryland's highest court that the state's lethal injection protocols weren't properly approved by a legislative committee. The committee, whose co-chairs oppose capital punishment, has yet to sign off on protocols.

O'Malley, a Catholic, expressed support for repeal legislation in 2007, but it stalled in a Senate committee.

Maryland has a large Catholic population, and the church opposes the death penalty.

In 2008, lawmakers created a commission to study capital punishment after repeal efforts failed again. The panel recommended a ban later that year, citing racial and jurisdictional disparities in how the death penalty is applied.

In 2009, lawmakers tightened the law to reduce the chances of an innocent person being sent to death row by restricting capital punishment to murder cases with biological evidence such as DNA, videotaped evidence of a murder or a videotaped confession.

According to the Maryland Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services website, Maryland has executed only five inmates since 1976. There were three in the 1990s, and two when Ehrlich was governor.

In contrast, neighboring Virginia has executed 110 inmates since the U.S. Supreme Court restored capital punishment in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. However, Virginia's death row population has dwindled to eight from a peak of 57 in 1995, in part because fewer death sentences are being handed down in the state amid an increased acceptance of life without parole as a reasonable alternative.

The center said death sentences have declined by 75 percent and executions by 60 percent nationally since the 1990s.

Connecticut abolished the death penalty last year. Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York also have outlawed it in recent years.

[SLOVV_NEWS]

How many times have you heard of a murderer being sentenced to life and afterwards murdered again? None that I know of.

[yotsubox1]

@pickles325 I am well aware of that argument. If you can't come up with a straight response it's better to not just throw out rehash. And I'm not sure how life in jail means it's ok to kill people. As I said before it is far less expensive to send them to jail for life.

[philthefarmer]

as a follower of Jesus the Christ and the Son of our Heavenly Father i don't like the death penalty because as the Bible says "what you pay fore in this life you don't have to pay for in the next life" and because the life to come is the real life lasting for Eternity i feel that life without parole is best and let our Heavenly Father exact the full measure. also i feel it brings no lasting peace to the loved ones of the murdered victim

[pickles325]

The religious need to stop, this is not about religion this about the law. This is about justice and punishment. I yes I believe that we need capital punishment. We keep protecting the bad guys and they wont care what happens to them because they know they will just sit in jail for years on taxpayers money eating 3 meals a day, watching cable television, going to the gym, getting a degree, using the internet and plus having friendds and family come visit. Now please explain to me why they deserve all that when they have brutally slain someone or multiple people, Trust me you are going to see more vigilantes if the states keep protecting these people in these states.

[philthefarmer]

as a follower of Jesus the Christ and the Son of our Heavenly Father i don't like the death penalty because as the Bible says "what you pay fore in this life you don't have to pay for in the next life" and because the life to come is the real life lasting for Eternity i feel that life without parole is best and let our Heavenly Father exact the full measure. also i feel it brings no lasting peace to the loved ones of the murdered victim

[chris_bray]

I'm afraid I don't understand what Maryland has to cheer about. Someone has to pay to keep those killers locked away, or maybe in Maryland's case, only locked away for long enough before they repeat their crime. If they are guilty enough for a life sentence, they are guilty enough for an execution. The argument that our criminal justice system is broken is lame and without merit. The facts and numbers don't support this. Certainly the media likes to promote the occassional miscarriage of justice as if it's the norm, but it is far from it. This maryland miscarriage of justice may leave some in the general public to seek real justice on their own. What do they have to lose? The odds of execution are going down. Glad I live in Texas where justice for the victim, rather than the criminal, is still recognized as the priority.

[yotsubox1]

I am not sure where you got your "facts and numbers". The ones the rest of us have pretty much unanimously show it is ineffective, extremely expensive, and almost always (if not always) more so than the expenses of life in jail. If you were well-informed or did the slightest bit of research you would know this. And yes death penalty proponents know it, and their argument is usually to cut the appeals process to save the money. But people have been exonerated after ten (and sometimes twenty) years thanks to these expensive appeals. Anyway welcome to the death penalty debate.

[pickles325]

This is why we are in debt in Maryland and the Country, protecting Mass Murderers and Murderers who committ murder just for the thrill of it. If you have no doubt, conclusive evidence and eyewitnesses then sorry they need to be put to death. By repealing the Seath Penalty they send a message out that it is ok nothing bad will happen to you. You will just live for 20 or so years maybe less with a roof over your head eating 3 meals a day watching cable television, playing on the internet, getting a education, medical attention, dental all the amentities. And the taxpayers get to pay for it. Well how about this, how about I am for Capital punishment so therefore I don't have to pay for them I choose not to save them and any of the bleeding hearts that want to pay for them you can. Maybe we should be able to choose how our tax paying dollars are spent.

[Fareed17]

Since State after State has proven they are incapable of punishing the guilty an exonerating the innocent beyond a reasonable doubt, those States are untrustworthy, and capital punishment would be a criminal act and unconstitutional.

[pickles325]

Ok 3 months ago a young man walked into an Elementary school and opened fired on some very young children, are you saying that if he had net killed himself that you would have been ok with him being locked up and thats it.

[dnha14]

So now instead of a plea bargain from the death penalty to life in prison, we get a plea bargain from life in prison down to 20 years. Then in 10 years when the geniuses in Annapolis abolish life in prison as cruel and unusual we get a plea bargain for murder down to 5 years. How does this help us? But then again they are the geniuses so they know what is best for all of us. :-P

[oldoc44]

Another step toward becoming a civilized nation. Our entire criminal justice system needs overhaul as there are too many "get-even" methods and sentences. We need a far more balanced way of "renewing" most prisoners wherein they are punished as well as rehabilitated towards recidivism reduction and better return to productive life and lower costs to everyone!