Maryland S Death

With the execution of Flint Gregory Hunt, 16 prisoners remain on Maryland's death row, and it appears that Tyrone Delano Gilliam could be next to face lethal injection.If Gilliam's death sentence is not overturned, he could be VTC executed as early as next summer -- a year after Hunt, who was put to death at 12: 27 a.m. Wednesday for the 1985 murder of Baltimore police Officer Vincent J. Adolfo.Gilliam of Rosedale was convicted in 1989 of the murder of Christine J. Doerfler, 21, of Baltimore during a robbery that netted $3. Doerfler was killed by a single shotgun blast to the head at the end of Gum Spring Road in a secluded area near the intersection of Interstates 95 and 695.A co-defendant testified that Gilliam shot the woman because she saw the killer's face.

Some of the most notorious killers in Maryland won a reprieve yesterday when a federal judge found that the state has failed to comply with a new federal law designed to limit death row appeals and pick up the pace of executions.The judge ruled that Maryland may not speed up executions by limiting federal appeals because the state has not created a system that guarantees top-notch legal help for inmates who are placed on the fast track for execution.The ruling by U.S. Chief District Judge J. Frederick Motz in Baltimore affects the cases of all but one of the 17 inmates on Maryland's death row. Instead of being pushed through the appeals process faster, the inmates and their attorneys will have more breathing room as they prepare their appeals and argue their cases.

It is expensive, controversial and has been carried out only once in 35 years.And Maryland's death penalty will be debated again today when lawyers for Scotland Eugene Williams appear before the state's highest court to plead for his life.Williams, convicted in the 1994 shooting deaths of Washington lawyers Julie Gilbert and Jose Trias in their weekend home near Annapolis, is under two death sentences.His lawyers say the death penalty statue is unconstitutional because it allows a judge or jury to use a less-stringent standard to decide whether to impose the penalty than they would use to determine guilt.

A gubernatorial task force has recommended a series of legal reforms from mandatory "diversity training" of courtroom personnel to more broadly based jury pools to reduce the influence of racial discrimination in Maryland death penalty cases.The committee was created in the summer to find out why a disproportionate share of people who end up on Maryland's death row are black and why convicts whose victims are white are disproportionately sentenced to death.While the nine-member panel did not conclude that race was a factor in death penalty sentencing, it found the apparent racial disparity a "cause for concern" and suggested the system provides a "potential for prejudice."

Despite a last-ditch appeal for clemency, Gov. William Donald Schaefer will end his term in office today as a rarity -- a 20th-century Maryland governor who never commuted a death sentence."

When Maryland held its first execution in more than three decades on May 17, it had the ideal candidate: a white multiple murderer who virtually volunteered for the death penalty.But John F. Thanos, who killed three teen-agers during a week of crime in 1990, had little in common with the 14 men who remain on Maryland's death row.They're fighting their executions, and they're expected once again to raise serious questions about racial and geographical bias in determining who gets the death penalty and why. Among the issues:* Twelve of the 14 are black, although blacks represent only 25 percent of Maryland's population.

Maryland's first execution in 33 years may be its last for a while -- unless there's another volunteer like John Frederick Thanos."Thanos is sort of the unusual one, because he skipped ahead of everyone" else on death row, said Gary E. Bair, Maryland's assistant attorney general in charge of criminal appeals.Thanos, 45, jumped ahead of the 13 other prisoners under death sentence by refusing to file state and federal appeals. None of the other inmates on death row has declined to file appeals, and attorneys estimate that it could take two years before the next inmate has exhausted his appeals to the point where execution is imminent.

Seeking a measure of revenge, the husbands, wives, friends and neighbors of recent Maryland murder victims beseeched the governor and top General Assembly leaders yesterday to speed up Maryland's death penalty process.They brought along the stories of their personal, horror-filled tragedies, but demonstrated a shared conviction that something seriously wrong with Maryland's criminal justice system -- and particularly with the state's capital punishment statute.They complained that public defenders, whose jobs they said were financed by law-abiding taxpayers, too often are successful in delaying and even reversing capital punishment cases.

Hours after a Baltimore judge cleared the way yesterday for prosecutors to seek the death penalty for the man accused of killing of Franciscan Sister MaryAnn Glinka, the Archdiocese of Baltimore issued a statement opposing the state's pursuit of a death sentence."

Sunday's editions of The Sun incorrectly included a photograph of Vernon Evans III in a graphic depicting prisoners on Maryland's death row. The graphic should have shown his father, Vernon Evans Jr., but the Baltimore County state's attorney's office inadvertently provided the photograph of the son.The Sun regrets the error.He has spent eight years on Maryland's death row. Twice hideath sentence has been overturned, but twice, new juries have voted again for death. He has years of appeals left and knows that another reversal could free him from the shadow of the gas chamber.

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?

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.

A House of Delegates committee approved the Senate's plan yesterday to restrict capital punishment to cases with specific kinds of evidence, a major step toward added limitations on Maryland's death penalty that could receive final legislative approval as soon as next week. Gov. Martin O'Malley had called on the Senate to abolish the death penalty, and the House appeared poised to follow suit. But the governor urged delegates this week to abandon the repeal in favor of the Senate plan.

Maryland will be better off without the death penalty ("Senate may debate death penalty repeal," Feb. 26). Repeal would allow Maryland to develop policies that are more effective at preventing crime and helping victims' families. The flaws in capital punishment, which were reflected in the hearings of the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment, have been well researched and well known for decades: * It does not deter crime. * It costs much more than the alternatives. * It drags out the suffering of victims' families rather than bringing them closure.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's decision to take the lead on repealing Maryland's death penalty has revived the up-to-now moribund chances of overturning the law. For the first time in years, there's talk that legislation to repeal capital punishment has a shot to emerge from a Senate committee, where it has been stuck because of entrenched opponents. Mr. O'Malley has long opposed the death penalty and spoken out against it. But putting the power of his office and his skills of personal persuasion behind a repeal bill will add considerable heft to the fight.

When the New Jersey legislature voted late last year to repeal the death penalty, it did so on the heels of a near-unanimous recommendation from a state commission that said capital punishment was too costly, too arbitrary and too tough on victims' families to justify the risk of an irreversible mistake. So when Maryland lawmakers created a panel to study the issue, death penalty opponents hoped it would produce a similar recommendation and provide the boost needed to repeal the death penalty law. Last week, they got that recommendation - but on a much closer vote than in New Jersey, where the margin was 12-1.

Maryland's death penalty law violates the most basic standards of fairness and decency. That's the conclusion of a state commission on capital punishment, and it should prompt citizens to insist that lawmakers bring the issue to a vote when they convene in Annapolis next year. The panel found, among other things, that the death penalty does not deter crime and is arbitrary and capricious, biased against African-Americans and fraught with risk for executing innocent people. During public hearings, the commissioners heard from dozens of witnesses and reviewed a large body of evidence pointing to the inescapable fact that the state's death penalty law is so deeply flawed that no amount of tinkering is likely to bring it into accord with the principals of equal justice.

In a democracy, there can be no greater miscarriage of justice than the execution of an innocent person. Yet this week, the state of Georgia came frighteningly close to that possibility in the case of Troy A. Davis, a death row inmate awaiting execution for the 1989 killing of a Savannah police officer. His conviction was based almost entirely on the statements of nine purported eyewitnesses, seven of whom later recanted their testimony. Mr. Davis was only hours from execution when the U.S. Supreme Court granted a temporary stay.

No criminal justice issue weighs more heavily on the consciences of judges, juries and corrections officials than the responsibility for imposing the ultimate penalty on defendants in capital cases. This week, a commission appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley opened hearings on whether Maryland's death penalty law meets basic standards of fairness and freedom from bias. The commission will be able to draw on a large body of evidence suggesting the current system is deeply flawed. Many studies have demonstrated glaring disparities in the severity of sentences handed down to defendants depending on their race and the race of their victims.

Is death penalty worth the price? If many people remain unconvinced that the death penalty is intrinsically evil, perhaps the results of the cost study of Maryland's death penalty by the Abell Foundation will convince them that the death penalty is not worthwhile ("Death penalty costs Md. more than life term," March 6). I recently moved to Baltimore from out of state, and I am appalled by the number of murders and acts of violence reported daily. Does anyone really believe that the fact that the state of Maryland has a death penalty is a deterrent to murder?