Gov. Martin O'Malley urged lawmakers yesterday to allow the full Senate to vote on his proposed repeal of the death penalty, an issue he called "the defining question of our time."
O'Malley, a Democrat who has long advocated an end to capital punishment, asked senators to consider both "empirical evidence" and "higher truths" when making their decision. "This goes to the very soul of who we are as a people and as a state," he said.
The governor's testimony before a closely divided Senate committee that has twice rejected repeal efforts came just hours after Sen. President Thomas V. Mike Miller sternly warned his colleagues not to let the emotionally charged issue hold up other legislative business.
After 4 1/2 hours of testimony from more than 50 witnesses - including political heavyweights, law enforcement officials and relatives of murder victims - the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee will decide next whether to vote or to take a more unusual route by sending the repeal to the full Senate without a recommendation.
The committee appears poised to take that contentious step, which would need approval from six of its 11 members.
Yesterday, Sen. James Brochin, a Baltimore County Democrat who opposes a total repeal, said he was "strongly considering" joining repeal proponents in turning the death penalty debate over to the full chamber. Another repeal opponent, Sen. Alex X. Mooney, a Republican representing Frederick and Washington counties, also has said he would like the entire Senate to weigh in.
Acknowledging the likelihood of a full-body debate, Miller, a supporter of capital punishment, said he worried that the discussion could last for days and "turn ugly," similar to a filibuster on abortion rights in 1990. There might not be enough senators on either side to block a filibuster, and a narrow majority of senators would likely vote down a repeal.
A recent survey of all 47 senators by The Baltimore Sun found that 19 are inclined to vote for O'Malley's bill and 24 oppose a total repeal of the death penalty. Four declined to answer as to how they would vote. Twenty-nine votes are needed to end a filibuster.
"These are fiery emotions," Miller said from the Senate floor yesterday, encouraging the Judicial Proceedings members to vote with him to limit debate if they forward the repeal without a recommendation.
