Dramatic constraints on Maryland’s death penalty given final approval by lawmakers Thursday will make the state the most restrictive of the 35 states that allow capital punishment, but the controversial law still falls short of the full repeal Gov. Martin O’Malley has been advocating for more than two years.
The House of Delegates voted 87-52 to pass legislation that would limit the death penalty to those cases in which there is DNA evidence, videotaped evidence or a voluntary, videotaped confession. Mr. O’Malley, a Democrat, has said he would sign the bill, making Maryland the only death-penalty state in the country where the type of evidence used to convict governs the type of sentence.
“While it is not the full repeal that we had hoped for, I want to thank the Maryland House of Delegates for voting to strengthen Maryland’s death-penalty law and making it one of the strictest death-penalty laws in the nation,” said Mr. O’Malley, who made banning the death penalty a key item of his 2009 legislative agenda.
Critics say that the new limitations are so severe that the worst murderers won’t be subject to it.
“The most heinous crimes will never get the death penalty if this bill becomes law. It doesn’t make any sense,” said Scott Schellenberger, state’s attorney for Baltimore County.
Mr. Schellenberger and other opponents say the bill was too hastily crafted and does not account for the fact that in cases like contract killings, the murderers typically do not leave behind DNA or videotaped evidence.
“Look at what was left out - people who commit murder for profit. The most notorious, the most vicious are those who kill for profit, not passion,” said Delegate Michael D. Smigiel Sr., Cecil Republican.
Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978, five people have been executed in Maryland, and five more are currently on death row. Three of those who face execution were convicted of contract killings. Anthony Grandison and Vernon Evans were sentenced to death for the 1983 contract killing of David Scott Piechowicz and Susan Kennedy, who were scheduled to testify against Grandison in a drug case. James Perry is also facing execution for the contract killing of Mildred Horn and Janice Saunders in 1993.
Opposition to the bill was fierce as the House began its debate Wednesday, but death-penalty supporters repeatedly failed in efforts to amend the bill to include contract killings, the killing of a prison guard by an inmate, or audiotaped evidence.
Advocates of the bill say it will “modernize” the death penalty and better ensure an innocent person is not executed.
Ms. Horn’s nephew, Delegate Craig L. Rice, Montgomery Democrat, an ardent supporter of the death penalty, said that the bill struck the right balance for both supporters and opponents of capital punishment.
“We need to lay to rest the concerns and fears that we are putting people to death who are innocent. Even though this bill is not perfect, it is in a good posture to lay to rest those concerns,” he said.
Some opponents say the law will effectively “nullify” the death penalty.
“Capital punishment, or as I like to call it ’capital justice,’ is dead in the state of Maryland,” said Delegate Patrick L. McDonough, Baltimore County Democrat.
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