Maryland Lawmakers Approve Tighter Death Penalty Rules


By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 26, 2009

The Maryland House of Delegates voted 87 to 52 today to approve some
of the nation's tightest restrictions on death penalty cases, sending
a bill to Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), who has indicated he will sign it.

The measure will limit capital cases to those with biological or DNA
evidence, a videotaped confession or a videotape linking the
defendant to a homicide. Those are among the steepest hurdles faced
by prosecutors in the 35 states that have a death penalty.

O'Malley has said he considers the bill "a step forward," although it
falls short of the repeal bill that he sponsored this year, and
pledged to do everything in his power to pass.

Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg (D-Baltimore) told his colleagues that the
bill would significantly reduce the possibility of wrongly executing
people.

Opponents of the bill said the measure would do much more than that.

"You have cleverly and successfully killed the death penalty in
Maryland," said Del. Patrick L. McDonough (D-Baltimore County), who
argued that the bill's restrictions are so strict that prosecutors
will not be able to bring capital cases.

Maryland's action comes as several states are rethinking the death
penalty. This month, New Mexico became the third state in recent
years to abandon capital punishment.

Tightening evidence standards is a different approach, but "it's
definitely going to cut death-eligible cases," said Richard Dieter,
executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in
Washington. "There aren't any other states that have this list of
three things, or anything close to it."

Lawmakers in Virginia bucked the trend this year by expanding capital
punishment to apply to criminals who assist in homicides, even if
they don't pull the trigger, and to cover those who kill fire
marshals or auxiliary police officers. The District does not have a
death penalty.

Although Maryland has imposed capital punishment less frequently than
some states, its use has generated impassioned debate, particularly
over disparities in how often it is pursued in different
jurisdictions. The state has executed five prisoners since
reinstating the death penalty in 1978. There are five on death row.

Maryland has had a de facto moratorium on capital punishment since
December 2006, when the state's highest court ruled that its
regulations on lethal injection had not been properly adopted.
O'Malley has not issued new rules allowing executions to resume but
indicated he would after this year's debate.

The state's punishments for murder include life in prison without the
possibility of parole.

The bill that the House passed today was hastily crafted in the
Senate this month as a compromise between death penalty opponents and
those who say that capital punishment should remain an option in
egregious cases. Although there is disagreement about some practical
implications of the bill, supporters and opponents say it will make
it more difficult for prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

Capital punishment supporters made several more attempts today to
amend the bill so that it would apply more broadly. An amendment was
defeated that would allow the death penalty when correctional
officers are killed, even if the new evidence standards are not met.
That change failed 75 to 61.

http://www.washingt onpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/ article/2009/ 03/26/
AR2009032601896. html