Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that he will do "everything in my power" to abolish the death penalty in Maryland this year and for the first time raised the possibility of allowing voters to decide the divisive issue through a constitutional amendment if legislative repeal efforts fail again.
"It's an issue with grave moral implications, certainly equal to the slots legislation," O'Malley said, referring to the casino gambling referendum that was approved by voters last year. "Maybe that's the way to go."
The governor, a Democrat, said he intends to sponsor a bill to repeal capital punishment, which would put more of his political capital behind the issue. A longtime death penalty opponent, the governor has testified in favor of repeal legislation, but he has never offered his own initiative. His effort comes a month after a gubernatorial commission voted to recommend abolishing capital punishment and issued a report outlining what it saw as fatal flaws in the application of the death penalty.
Some lawmakers and death penalty opponents said the administration's sponsorship could be enough to move a bill out of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, where identical efforts have failed the past two years.
Sen. Lisa A. Gladden, a Baltimore Democrat who has sponsored those bills, said she was pleased when the governor told her Wednesday that repeal of the death penalty would be part of his administration's legislative package.
"Having the governor's power and authority behind it is really going to make a difference," she said.
In 2007, Gladden's bill died on a 5-5 vote in the committee, of which she is vice chairman. Last year, the bill went nowhere as lawmakers chose instead to establish the study commission. There's no indication any committee members have changed positions, so O'Malley and death penalty opponents have hinted they might consider other ways to move legislation forward.
One possibility is a procedural vote to bring the legislation to the floor for a full House and Senate vote, removing the bill from the Senate committee where it has been bottled up in the past. Such a tactic is considered bad form in Annapolis, and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller warned against such a maneuver yesterday, saying he advised O'Malley at a breakfast meeting to find another way.
"I encouraged him to work with the members of the committee," Miller said.
