The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services recently proposed new regulations for lethal injection procedures.  Executions in Maryland have been at a halt since 2005, when a court of appeals ruling found that the execution protocols were illegally adopted.  If the regulations are adopted, they will move the state closer to resuming use of the death penalty.   These regulations have now been published in the Maryland Register, and they are open for comment for the next 30 days.

According to the regulations:

“Comments may be sent to Randy Watson, Assistant Commissioner, Division of Correction, 6776 Reisterstown Road, Baltimore, MD 21215-2342, or call 410-585-3300. Comments will be accepted through August 31, 2009. A public hearing has not been scheduled.”

These new regulations do not appear to address any of the major problems inherent in the use of lethal injection. Among many other things, the regulations propose that:

• Executions would continue using a drug – pancuronium bromide – that is not even permitted for use in euthanizing animals. Medical officials have consistently warned that the combination of drugs proposed here may cause the prisoner a very painful death, and indeed several such botched executions using these drugs have occurred.  
• A certified paramedic must be on duty in some capacity during the execution, either as a part of the execution or standing right outside of the area where the execution takes place.  A licensed physician would also have to be present.  These proposals could result in violations of AMA ethical guidelines. 

There are currently five men on death row in Maryland. While these regulations would not mean that executions would immediately start happening, it does mean that de facto moratorium on executions would end.

Resuming executions would be a huge step backwards for the state of Maryland. Despite a long fight in recent years, the death penalty still has not been outlawed in the state, though it has been restricted. But the current moratorium on executions, coupled with the historically infrequent use of the practice in the state, gives hope that Maryland is not far from joining the other fifteen states (plus D.C.) that have outlawed capital punishment.

The Maryland Senate this morning voted for a “compromise” on the bill formerly known as the repeal bill.  In this compromise legislation, the death penalty would be restricted to cases where there is either biological or DNA evidence or some type of video evidence (either a video-taped confession or video of the crime itself).  Death sentences could not be obtained solely on the basis of eye-witness testimony.  Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair Frosh, who supports repeal, endorsed this legislation, saying that it would “move the ball forward in the right direction.” 

These restrictions, of course, don’t apply retroactively, and Maryland may one day end up executing one or more of the five men currently on Maryland’s death row. 

The compromise bill also doesn’t address the costs of the death penalty, and it certainly doesn’t address the conclusion of the Commission on Capital Punishment report that the death penalty process is more harmful for victims’ families than alternatives.  The Commission reached this conclusion by a near-unanimous 20-1 vote. 

So, Maryland’s death penalty will remain on the books, and Marylanders will continue paying for it financially, and victims’ families will continue to have to endure a process that all sides have agreed is more painful.

This afternoon, the Maryland death penalty repeal bill was amended on the Senate floor, by a 25-22 vote, so that the death penalty would still be available, except in cases that rely exclusively on witness testimony (as in Troy Davis’ case).  A second amendment to restrict the death penalty to cases with DNA evidence or taped confessions also passed.  Thus, the death penalty abolition bill became a death penalty restriction bill.

Then, confusion began to take over.  Amendments to the original bill continued to be proposed, even though they did not seem to fit with the new version.  An amendment which would have further restricted the death penalty to killings in prison was submitted, then pulled.  Some seemed unaware that the first amendment had already taken repeal off the table.  A move to send the bill back to its committee and let them sort it out failed.  Ultimately, the Senate adjourned and will reconvene at 9 am tomorrow, when more amendments will likely be submitted.

By procedural votes of 25-22 and then 24-23, the Maryland Senate brought the death penalty repeal bill to the floor where, sometime this afternoon or evening, it will be debated and amendments will be offered.  After this morning’s voting it was decided that they would “play it by ear,” so there is no formal time for the debate to resume.  Audio of Senate proceedings is available online.

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.

When testifying before state lawmakers in 2007, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley asked “Can the death penalty ever be justified as public policy when it inherently necessitates the occasional taking of wrongly convicted, innocent life?” 

According to Michael May, a former military and Baltimore City police officer, the answer is no.  In an op-ed in today’s Baltimore Examiner, May writes that he originally supported the death penalty, certain that all opponents of capital punishment were just “muddleheaded, knee-jerk liberals.”  But it was the risk of executing an innocent person that changed his mind, and he now advocates for repeal of the death penalty in Maryland.   

We know that 130 people have been exonerated from death rows across the country after evidence of their wrongful conviction emerged.  And we know that the first person to be exonerated by DNA evidence, Kirk Bloodsworth, was sentenced to die in Maryland.  The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment recently voted to recommend repeal of the death penalty, and it is time for the legislature to follow their lead – but in order to do so they need to hear from their constituents!  Find out how you can get involved and help repeal Maryland’s death penalty today!

On Wednesday, the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment voted to recommend repealing the death penalty in Maryland. The Commission was created by the Maryland General Assembly to conduct a thorough study of capital punishment in that state. After five public hearings and hours of testimony from both experts and the general public, the Commission determined that Maryland’s death penalty is:

• Racially and geographically biased
• More expensive
• Harmful to victims’ families
• Not a deterrent.

The Commission also concluded that there is a “real possibility of wrongly executing an innocent person” in Maryland. 

The Commission’s final report is due on December 15, and then, beginning in January of 2009, the General Assembly will decide on whether to finally abolish capital punishment Maryland.

Victims' families before the Commission urging repeal