Governor O'Malley Testifies on Repeal of Death Penalty
O’Malley Testifies that Capital Punishment is Expensive, Outdated, and Utterly Ineffective Tool in Deterring Violent Crime
ANNAPOLIS, MD (February 18, 2009) – Testifying before members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, Governor Martin O’Malley today called for the repeal of capital punishment in Maryland. In his 2009 legislative package, Governor O’Malley has introduced a bill that would abolish capital punishment in Maryland, and has also introduced bills to improve public safety for the State including two bills that would protect victims of domestic violence.
“The question of whether to replace Maryland’s criminal death penalty with the punishment of life without parole is one for which good people on both sides disagree,” said Governor O’Malley. “There is an array of facts and figures which illustrate that the death penalty is an expensive, outdated, and utterly ineffective tool in deterring violent crime. Mr. Chairman, Members of this Committee, I urge you to give the repeal a fair up-or-down vote before the Senate. And I urge you to vote (and to persuade your colleagues to vote) to repeal capital punishment in Maryland.”
“Our free and diverse republic was founded not on fear and retribution – it was born from higher things; rooted in unalienable rights endowed by our Creator,” he said. “Freedom, justice, the dignity of the individual, equal rights before the law – these are the principals that define our character as a people. And so we must ask ourselves: are these principles compatible with the “civil” taking of human life? Are these principles compatible with the very real risk of erroneously taking the life of an innocent neighbor?”
Based on the recommendations of the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment, Governor O’Malley’s proposed legislation (Criminal Law – Death Penalty- Repeal, HB 316, SB 279), would seek the repeal of the death penalty in the State of Maryland.
The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment was created by an act of the Maryland General Assembly in the 2008 legislative session. The 22-member Commission’s membership represented a broad diversity of views on capital punishment, as well as the racial, ethnic, gender, and geographic diversity of the State. The law required the Commission to make recommendations to address: racial, jurisdictional, and socio-economic disparities; the risk of innocent people being executed; a comparison of the costs and effects of “prolonged court cases involving capital punishment” versus cases involving life imprisonment without the possibility of parole; and “the impact of DNA evidence in assuring fairness and accuracy in capital cases.” Chaired by former U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, the Commission reviewed testimony from experts and members of the public, relevant Maryland laws and court cases, as well as statistics and studies relevant to the topic of capital punishment in Maryland, and submitted a final report on its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly in December 2008. After a thorough review of this information, the Commission recommended that capital punishment be abolished in Maryland.
In particular, the Commission found that:
- Racial disparities exist in Maryland’s capital sentencing system.
- Jurisdictional disparities exist in Maryland’s capital sentencing system.
- The costs associated with cases in which a death sentence is sought are substantially higher than the costs associated with cases in which a sentence of life without the possibility of parole is sought.
- While both life without the possibility of parole and death penalty cases are extremely hard on families of victims, the effects of capital cases are more detrimental to families than are life without the possibility of parole cases. The Commission recommends an increase of the services and resources already provided to families of victims as recommended by the Victims’ Subcommittee.
- Despite the advance of forensic sciences, particularly DNA testing, the risk of execution of an innocent person is a real possibility.
- The Commission finds that there is no persuasive evidence that the death penalty deters homicides in Maryland.
- Ultimate Recommendation: The Commission recommends abolition of capital punishment in the state of Maryland.
