NEWS
October 13, 2009
The fundamental question to be asked about the "serious flaws" that a legislative panel reviewing Maryland's death penalty protocols has found in how the state executes condemned inmates is this: Are there substantive ethical and legal problems with the procedure that require further study before executions can proceed, as panel members insist? Or is the finding merely an excuse to extend the de facto moratorium on executions that has existed since 2006, as death penalty supporters argue?
NEWS
June 26, 2009
After years of dragging its feet, the O'Malley administration has proposed regulations to implement Maryland's death penalty, a necessary step to resume capital punishment after the Court of Appeals ruled in 2006 that the previous regulations had not been properly adopted. For all the time it took to craft them, they are remarkably similar to the old ones; the main changes are restrictions on corrections personnel performing a "cut down" procedure to get access to a condemned inmate's vein to administer lethal drugs; more time for the inmate to spend with his or her family; and a provision for a last meal.
NEWS
May 8, 2009
The death penalty law Gov. Martin O'Malley signed Thursday didn't give opponents of capital punishment everything they wanted, but it marked a significant step toward ending executions in Maryland by significantly narrowing the circumstances under which the ultimate punishment can be imposed. Under the new law, prosecutors may seek the death penalty only in cases where there is DNA or biological evidence, a videotape of the crime or a video-recorded confession by the killer. The new limitations make Maryland's death penalty law among the most restrictive in the country.
NEWS
By Julie Bykowicz | March 27, 2009
The House of Delegates approved new restrictions on the death penalty in Maryland on Thursday, sending the much-debated plan to the state's anti-capital punishment governor, who has said he will sign it into law. Amid a national debate over executions, Maryland's evidentiary limitations will become the most stringent of any of the 35 states that have capital punishment on the books, legal experts say. Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, had sought to...
NEWS
By Julie Bykowicz | March 26, 2009
New limits on the death penalty in Maryland took a major step Wednesday toward becoming law, even as some state senators acknowledged that refinements are needed in legislation that appears headed to the desk of the governor, who has said he will sign it. The House of Delegates rejected a Republican-led effort to loosen proposed restrictions, meaning that a Senate plan to limit the death penalty to murder cases that include DNA or other biological evidence,...
NEWS
By Julie Bykowicz | March 18, 2009
Maryland's attorney general and Baltimore County's top prosecutor, both death penalty supporters, want the General Assembly to abandon what they are calling haphazard and arbitrary restrictions on capital punishment cases approved by the Senate this month. Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler said in an interview that the Senate proposal is "ill-prepared, ill-thought-out, awkward and clumsy." Under that plan, capital punishment would be limited to murder cases where there is biological or DNA evidence, a videotaped confession, or a video recording of the crime.
NEWS
By Julie Bykowicz | March 5, 2009
Maryland senators advanced a plan yesterday to make the state's capital punishment statute one of the most limited in the nation. Although the proposal is far short of the full repeal sought by Gov. Martin O'Malley, the governor said it might be the best that death penalty opponents could hope for this year. The new requirements - if they become law - would mean that the death penalty could be applied only in murder cases in which there is DNA evidence, a video recording of the defendant committing the crime, or a voluntary, videotaped confession.
NEWS
By Julie Bykowicz and Gadi Dechter | March 4, 2009
Baltimore County senators rebuffed an effort to abolish Maryland's death penalty yesterday, persuading lawmakers instead to restrict when capital punishment can be used. The Senate's first full debate on the death penalty in more than three decades was cut short when amendments stripped the word repeal out of a repeal initiative, prompting confusion on the floor. Exasperated senators rose one after another to say that they weren't sure what they were voting on. "What we are getting is a real mess," said Sen. Delores G. Kelley, a Baltimore County Democrat.
NEWS
By Julie Bykowicz and Gadi Dechter | March 3, 2009
Maryland senators are bracing for a divisive debate this morning on capital punishment, with two influential state leaders pulling lawmakers in opposite directions. A staunch death penalty supporter, Sen. President Thomas V. Mike Miller has vowed not to lobby on the issue. Yet some senators said he has been discouraging them from approving a procedural move needed to bring repeal legislation to the Senate floor. On the other side, Gov. Martin O'Malley, a fellow Democrat, has been lobbying hard for repeal, sending out mass e-mails yesterday and over the weekend, leading a rally last week and scheduling an appearance this morning with two former governors who now oppose the death penalty.
NEWS
By Gadi Dechter | February 28, 2009
Lobbying efforts by death penalty opponents will intensify this weekend, even though a bill to abolish state executions died yesterday in a key Senate committee. Ordinarily, the "unfavorable" vote by the Judicial Proceedings Committee would end debate. But because of a major push this year by the governor, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said he will entertain a rarely used parliamentary maneuver to allow the full chamber to resurrect the bill "as early as next week." That sets up a fierce debate on capital punishment that could tie up business in the Senate for hours, if not days.