Gansler Argues Md. Can't Carry Out Death Sentences

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler says the state has lost the ability to carry out a death sentence, even against a death row inmate who was sentenced before the state banned capital punishment last year.

Gansler argued before a three-judge panel in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Monday that death-row inmate Jody Lee Miles should be re-sentenced to life without possibility of parole.

Maryland has four death-row inmates who were sentenced before last year's repeal.

Gansler says that in banning capital punishment, lawmakers also repealed part of the law that enabled a state agency to introduce new lethal injection protocols. Gansler says that means there is no way to comply with a 2006 court ruling that executions can't happen until protocols are approved by a legislative panel.

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