Developing: Pakistani Plane Escorted by UK Fighter Jets — 2 Men Arrested

Doc Thompson’s 24-hour radio marathon, ‘#24forok,’ continues until 9 am ET — Listen Live!

Government

Maryland Lawmakers Do Away With the Death Penalty

Mar. 15, 2013 3:20pm Jason Howerton

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — 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.

Benghazi, IRS, AP...What's next? Only TheBlaze TV offers the truth from Glenn Beck, Andrew Wilkow, and Real News from TheBlaze. Get instant access and a free trial here.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (23)

American-first
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 9:07pm
While the push is on to not allow or restrict the lawibiding from owning using firearms for protection. They are also working to remove the death punishment for those who murder. What about the innocent who are being murdered on purpose?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Gladileftcalifornia
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 6:39pm
And get better cookies too.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
david3755
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 1:28pm
Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the Innocent. I guess they will also run Beretta out of their state also. Hope they can clean up the mess in 2014.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
oldincarolina
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 11:35am
Giving someone life in prison for murder is not right . It is not likely but it is possible for someone to escape prison and kill again . And, who is held accountable when they do ?

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Bruce P.
  Posted on March 16, 2013 at 7:22pm
  Executing someone, ensuring that there is a point where exculpatory evidence cannot be presented, is not right.
  
  But that if thousand innocent men die it is worth it if one guilty man does not go free, right?
  
  Report this comment
rja444
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 9:40am
New Jersey, New York and Connecticut also have very restrictive gun laws, which makes it harder for the law abiding citizen to protect themselves, makes you wonder which side these liberal politicians are on.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Lone Ranger
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 8:00am
As if the People’s Republic of Maryland weren’t dangerous enough. First, they disarm honest citizens. Now this. Although I live only a few miles from the Maryland border, I don’t go there and I don’t spend a penny there.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
lessoneleg
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 12:23am
How many of those Maryland representative who voted against the Death Penalty also support late term abortions?
Isn’t it odd that these people who voted to save the lives of the most gross disrespectful specimens of humanity. They support the irradication of the most innocent vulnerable beings on the planet, the unborn child.
It’s such a warped contradiction of humanity.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on March 15, 2013 at 10:04pm
You have the right to bear arms and kill people, any questions?

Duh?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
lessoneleg
Posted on March 15, 2013 at 8:20pm
In cases of “absolute” evidence to convict I declare that the death penalty is just. How can a progressive say otherwise? But can we say that progressives won’t revise “life imprisonment” once the death penalty choice has been removed.
A progressive will not sit idly by satisfied that “life in prison” means exactly that life in prison!

The choice of death penalty should be given on irrefutable evidence without a question of doubt. How dare progressives again impose their deluded mentality without posing it by referendum to the people. Verdicts are given by the people. It’s why we have jury trials.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- antitheism
  Posted on March 15, 2013 at 8:42pm
  Juries are a joke. The average American is obese, uneducated, and superstitious. Something as serious as a person’s freedom should not be held at the mercy of average Americans.
  
  Report this comment
- Rayblue
  Posted on March 15, 2013 at 9:49pm
  The average American isn’t obese, uneducated and superstitious.
  The average is brought up considerably by me.
  To the point of buffed, Mensatonic, and superstitious.
  
  Report this comment
skunkbear
Posted on March 15, 2013 at 7:49pm
While an-eye-for-an-eye is justice, I do not see how anyone can have faith or confidence in the gubment, whether state or federal, to be competent enough – let alone honest enough – to produce said justice.

Resolving issues of justice and truth – of life and death – are simply beyond the abilities of the amerikan “justice system” so I must sadly agree with the ending of the death penalty. Sad because although I do believe a murder victim does indeed deserve justice, I have absolutely no confidence in this corrupt system to ensure the rights of the innocent, who are also equally deserving of justice.

Justice herewith being defined as protecting the innocent while punishing the guilty; and guilty is herewith defined as one who has caused actual harm to a person or to their property.

In short, my position can be summed up in just two syllables: Ni fong.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Walkabout
Posted on March 15, 2013 at 7:28pm
Scratch the death penalty.

Now libs can work on long sentences & say thing like “life in prison or 20 years is too long for murdering a person”.

You know they want to go there next.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Bruce P.
Posted on March 15, 2013 at 7:19pm
I do not support the death penalty for the fact that humans are fallible. Juries make mistakes. Juries can be manipulated. Evidence can be missed. Evidence can be misinterpreted, by malice or incompetence. Evidence can be faked. Exculpatory evidence can and does turn up years after a case has been tried and a person convicted. There should never been a time when such evidence is “too late” to save a person’s life.

I support, upon conviction, life in prison for murder, without the possibility of parole.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Rayblue
  Posted on March 15, 2013 at 9:36pm
  Don’t care much for the victims rights I see.
  
  Report this comment
- Bruce P.
  Posted on March 16, 2013 at 7:20pm
  First, where did I say anything, for or against, victim’s rights?
  
  Second, how does life in prison, without the possibility of parole, go against the rights of a victim? How does ensuring there there is never a period where it is too late to save an innocent man’s life, one who is wrongly convicted of a crime, go against victims rights?
  
  Whether one is on death-row or in for life without parole, it has absolutely no effect on the rights of the victim.
  
  Report this comment
kofakid
Posted on March 15, 2013 at 7:10pm
Boy you Marylanders must feel soooooo blessed. First your leaders say you have no right to defend yourselves. Then they refuse to punish your murders. They must value your life so much. Will be praying for you, your gonna need buddy.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- carhouse
  Posted on March 15, 2013 at 9:41pm
  more prisoners equal more union guards equalls more lib voters
  
  Report this comment
TheFederalist
Posted on March 15, 2013 at 6:57pm
This really shows where O`Malley`s principles and morals are. He has no problem murdering the unborn, but says we shouldn`t kill inmates that committed murder.
And this numb nut wants to run for President in 2016!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Chuck Stein
Posted on March 15, 2013 at 6:51pm
Actually, the Maryland lawmakers CANNOT do away with the death penalty. They can do away with the death penalty as a state-sponsored punishment for crime. Criminals, however, will readilly enforce a death penalty according to their own standards.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
dosdelgados
Posted on March 15, 2013 at 6:46pm
I think the death penalty is needed more, and carried out more quickly. Good example setting, you know.

Who wouldn’t want a guaranteed three hots and a cot, cable TV, library, video games, and gym time on someone else’s dime??

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Rayblue
Posted on March 15, 2013 at 6:24pm
Maryland is a state ?
I thought it was a sandbar with a bad idea for food.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply

It appears that you have Javascript Disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser preferences for a better user experience on TheBlaze. You can not comment without Javascript enabled.