UPDATE:  The New Mexico House of Representatives passed the death penalty repeal bill, by a vote of 40-28.

Today the New Mexico House of Representatives will be debating and possibly voting on a bill to abolish the death penalty (HB285).   This is but one of a stream of bills to repeal or limit the death penalty under consideration across the country.

Yesterday, the New Hampshire House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee held hearings on bills to abolish the death penalty (HB556) or conduct a study (HB520) of its flaws.  Also yesterday, hearings were held on an abolition bill in Washington state (SB5476). And tomorrow or Friday, the Senate in Montana is expected to vote on an abolition bill (SB236).  A week from today, the much anticipated Senate committee hearing on the Maryland abolition bill (SB279) will take place.

With the exception of Washington, these are all states where death penalty abolition was expected to be given serious consideration, and those expectations are clearly being realized.  Other states, like Washington, Kansas (where Republican Senator Carolyn McGinn filed an abolition bill (SB208)) and Colorado (where a bill to repeal the death penalty and use the money saved to solve cold cases (HB09-1274)) have also begun to have serious discussions about ending the death penalty, primarily for economic reasons.  In Missouri, where lethal injection and other snafus have brought executions to a halt in what was once a very active death penalty state, over 60 co-sponsors, including at least 13 Republicans, have endorsed a bill to establish an official moratorium on executions (HB484).

There are notable exceptions to this apparent trend.  Executions continue in Texas at their usual high rate, and the Virginia legislature has, once again, passed a bill to expand the death penalty (HB2358 and SB961) to include those involved in murders who do not actually pull the trigger.  (If history is any guide, the Governor will once again veto this legislation.)

But, all in all, important debates about the wisdom of capital punishment are occurring in a larger number of states, and the slow, steady drift away from support for the death penalty seems to be continuing.

Today, the first important committee hearings on state abolition bills will be held: one in New Mexico (HB285) and one in Nebraska (LB306).  Nebraska legislators will also be considering a bill to introduce lethal injection as the method of execution (LB36), since Nebraska’s sole method of state killing, the electric chair, was declared unconstitutional last year. 

Meanwhile, the Maryland bill repealing capital punishment has also been introduced in the Senate (SB279), and there appear to be serious discussions on how to break the logjam that has held this bill up in committee in the past, with even some death penalty supporters saying that it is important that this issue get a hearing in front of the full Senate.

Stay tuned …

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has announced, via a Washington Post article among other places, that he intends to personally sponsor a death penalty repeal bill and will “do ‘everything in [his] power’ to abolish capital punishment in Maryland.”

This doesn’t mean ending the death penalty in Maryland will be easy, but a serious investment of that kind of political capital into an issue can only be helpful.  And the Governor’s personal support comes after the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment issued its final report last month, which also recommended abolition.  In the General Assembly, by most accounts, the votes are there, except in the Senate Judicial Proceedings committee, where it fell just one vote short two years ago.

The Commission report clearly illustrates the problems with Maryland’s death penalty (problems which are common to all the other capital punishment states).  The Commission concluded that the death penalty in Maryland is racially and geographically biased, more costly, and not a deterrent.  The Commission also found that the death penalty was more harmful to victims’ families than the alternatives and that there is a “real possibility” of executing an innocent person in Maryland.

Maryland has had only 5 executions in 30 years, and there are only 5 men currently on Maryland’s death row, so you have to wonder:  what is it death penalty supporters are clinging to?  As Senate President and death penalty supporter Mike Miller suggested to the Post:  “When you’re middle-aged, your mind is pretty much set on issues like this.”  It appears that Governor O’Malley is determined to change at least a couple of those minds.

Today, the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment made it official, formally recommending in its Final Report that Maryland repeal the death penalty.

The report’s final recommendation concludes:

“For all of these reasons—to eliminate racial and jurisdictional bias, to reduce unnecessary costs, to lessen the misery that capital cases force victims of family members to endure, to eliminate the risk that an innocent person can be convicted—the Commission strongly recommends that capital punishment be abolished in Maryland.”

The Maryland General Assembly (which created the Commission) will take up the issue when its 2009 session begins about a month from now, on January 14.  The session ends in April, so we should know fairly soon whether Maryland will become the 15th U.S. state to abolish the death penalty.