Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that he would sign a repeal of the death penalty if a bill reaches his desk, weighing in on the contentious issue hours after a coalition of legislators and activists renewed their push to strike Maryland's execution law from the books.
"Now that it's salient, and we have to deal with it, I'm certainly not going to try to duck or hide. I would like to see us repeal the death penalty," O'Malley said during an interview in his State House office. "I think the dollars could go to better use and could be invested in things that actually save lives. I don't believe the death penalty saves lives."
Democratic lawmakers introduced a new legislative proposal yesterday that would replace the death penalty with life without the possibility of parole for the most violent criminals. Sponsored by Sen. Lisa A. Gladden and Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, both Baltimore Democrats, the bills come on the heels of a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling in December that halted executions until lawmakers develop appropriate oversight for the administration of lethal injections.
Five convicted murderers have been executed in Maryland since 1978, including two under warrants signed by former Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a death penalty supporter who left office this month.
But with a new Democratic governor and growing national worry about how the punishment is administered and whether race is a factor, the sponsors said the time is right to rekindle a serious debate in Annapolis.
Joined yesterday by activists, including Kirk Bloodsworth, who in 1993 became the first death-row inmate in the country to be exonerated through the use of DNA evidence, they said they are working on the votes needed to get the bills out of committee.
Gladden said the bills present an opportunity for Maryland to make a statement "to our nation of who we are as a people."
"I felt that we are now at a sea change and that our communities are now speaking loudly and clearly about making sure that innocent people, perhaps, are not put to death," said Gladden, a public defender in Baltimore. "One mistake is too much."
O'Malley said he would lobby for the repeal bills, although he did not include such a measure in the legislative agenda he released this week. "There are good people who have strong feelings on both sides of that issue," he said.
Still, he expressed skepticism that a majority of the House of Delegates or the Senate will support the bills.
"I'm not overly optimistic that they will, but there's a lot of new members, and perhaps given the problems, what went on in Florida, given all of the other issues having to do with the way that it's applied, maybe there is the will to do it," the governor said. Executions in Florida were halted last month amid concerns over the way lethal injections were administered.
The December Court of Appeals ruling imposed a de facto moratorium on executions in Maryland.
Ruling unanimously in an appeal by death-row inmate Vernon L. Evans, the court determined that procedures for administering lethal injections should be considered regulations and therefore reviewed by a committee of state senators and delegates. The moratorium will stand until legislators pass a law that either exempts the procedures from review or addresses the court's regulatory concerns. Or, lawmakers could do nothing, leaving the moratorium in place.
Former Gov. Parris N. Glendening imposed a moratorium in 2002 so racial disparity and other issues could be studied, but that ban was lifted under Ehrlich, his successor. Six people sit on the state's death row; four are black, two are white.
Nationally, 38 states have the death penalty, while 12 do not, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. But five of the 38 states - Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and South Dakota - have not executed an inmate since 1976.
Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger said the death penalty plays a vital role in Maryland's criminal justice system.
"Maryland already has life without parole, and we've also had the death penalty, and I'm still very much in favor of the death penalty," he said. "I still think it acts as a deterrent. Certainly a deterrent of one [person], and that is the person that receives the death penalty [and] will never kill again."
Sen. Nancy Jacobs, a Harford County Republican and death penalty supporter, said victims of violent crime and their families deserve justice.
"I have more sympathy for the victims of crimes than I do for the perpetrators," Jacobs said. "I think people on both sides of the issue need to go to a family whose loved ones were tortured and killed and tell them the criminal deserves to live."
But death penalty opponents, gathered in Annapolis for a news conference yesterday, said the punishment disproportionately affects African-Americans. Rosenberg argued that the death penalty is not a proven deterrent to crime and that "there are compelling moral reasons to abandon it." He said the state-sanctioned killing of an innocent person is "virtually inevitable."
"The death penalty is broken beyond repair in Maryland, and across the country we cannot fix it in a way that is equitable," he said.
Lawmakers were joined by longtime activists and members of the clergy who are backing their cause. Rosenberg noted that several religious institutions support repeal, including Associated Catholic Charities; the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland; the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington; and the United Methodist Church and the Presbytery of Baltimore.
Two former death-row inmates - both wrongfully convicted - told their stories yesterday. One was Bloodsworth, a former Marine with no criminal record who served nine years in prison for the murder and rape of a 9-year-old girl. He spent two of those years on death row, but was serving a life sentence when DNA evidence cleared him. Bloodsworth's death sentence was overturned by the Court of Appeals.
"I am living proof that the criminal justice system makes serious mistakes," said Bloodsworth, who has become a national advocate for abolishing the death penalty and an author. " ... I was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death, and I've got one thing to say on that issue, that if it can happen to me it can happen to anybody in this room and anybody in the state of Maryland."
jennifer.skalka@baltsun.com
Sun reporter Jennifer McMenamin contributed to this article.
Key Death Penalty Dates
1972:
The U.S. Supreme Court invalidates death penalty statutes across the country.
1976:
U.S. Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is legal.
1978:
General Assembly reinstates death penalty laws in Maryland.
1987:
General Assembly adds life without the possibility of parole to the books as a sentencing option.
1994:
General Assembly authorizes injection as the state's method of execution.
May 17, 1994, at 1:10 a.m.:
John Frederick Thanos is executed for killing three teenagers during a weeklong crime spree in 1990.
July 2, 1997, at 12:27 a.m.:
Flint Gregory Hunt is executed for gunning down a Baltimore policeman in 1985.
Nov. 16, 1998, at 10:27 p.m.:
Tyrone X. Gilliam is executed for kidnapping and killing a Baltimore accountant in 1988.
May 9, 2002:
Gov. Parris N. Glendening imposes a moratorium on the death penalty while a state-ordered University of Maryland study of capital punishment is conducted. The study would conclude there are racial and geographic disparities in the application of the death penalty in the state.
Jan. 15, 2003:
The execution moratorium is effectively lifted when Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is sworn in as governor.
June 17, 2004, at 9:18 p.m.:
Steven Howard Oken is executed for the rape and murder of a White Marsh newlywed at the start of a crime spree in 1987 that included the killings of two other women.
Dec. 5, 2005 at 9:18 p.m.:
Wesley Eugene Baker is executed for killing a Baltimore County elementary school teacher's aide in front of her grandchildren in a 1991 robbery.
Dec. 19, 2006:
Maryland Court of Appeals rules that executions cannot continue in Maryland until the legislature approves regulations for lethal injection procedures, or passes a law saying that such rules are not required.
Jan. 17, 2007:
Gov. Martin O'Malley, a death penalty opponent, succeeds Ehrlich in office. [Jennifer McMenamin]