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Maryland Commission on Capital PunishmentFriday, September 5
Monday, September 22 Maryland CASE Statement on Appointments to Commission on Capital PunishmentJane Henderson, executive director of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions, released this statement following Governor Martin O'Malley's announcement of the members of the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment. "This is a distinguished and balanced cross section of Marylanders, including corrections and law enforcement, murder victims family members, the public defender, clergy, and other stakeholders in this issue. We expect Commissioners will take their charge seriously, hear from a wide array of experts and citizens, and carefully examine this important issue." "Maryland CASE is hopeful that the death penalty Commission will thoroughly scrutinize the many serious issues addressed in the bipartisan legislation that created it. Those questions require the Commission to make recommendations related to the risk of executing innocent people, the extra costs of the death penalty, the toll prolonged death penalty cases take on victims' families, and fair application of the punishment." "The Commission will undertake the first thorough examination of the death penalty in state history. And today, we know so much more about the death penalty than we did when it was reinstated in Maryland 30 years ago. It is time to learn from the past and forthrightly evaluate whether or not we would be better served by replacing the death penalty with life without the possibility of parole, which Maryland CASE believes is severe, more certain for the families left behind by murder, and still ultimately reversible in cases where the convicted person is later exonerated." Maryland CASE Statement on Supreme Court's Baze Decision
"The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that the most common form of lethal injection does not violate the Constitution. This highly splintered ruling should not be seen as an endorsement of capital punishment. Indeed, one of the Court's members, Justice John Paul Stevens, expressed deep concerns about the death penalty in his concurring opinion. 'The time for a dispassionate, impartial comparison of the enormous costs that death penalty litigation imposes on society with the benefits that it produces has surely arrived,' Justice Stevens wrote. "That is exactly where Maryland is heading. The General Assembly recently authorized a state Commission to study all aspects of the death penalty and report back late this year. The public discourse in our state has moved beyond splitting hairs about the best way to administer lethal injections. "The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment will look carefully at all aspects of the death penalty and how it is administered in the state. This review will look at critically important issues, such as the risk of executing innocent people, the high cost of the death penalty and the toll it takes on victims' families during drawn-out appeals. This review is long overdue and will provide guidance to policymakers beginning next January.
Thank the General Assembly for Passing Death Penalty Commission
Legislative leaders supported the bill, including Senate President Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch. This Commission is the first of it's kind in Maryland, a broadly representative and diverse body charged to make recommendations regarding the future of the death penalty in Maryland. Let's show the public mandate matches the legislative mandate for this Commission. Saying thank you is so important! Each legislator who voted for the bill needs to be thanked. Thank:Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Thank:Your own Senator and Delegates if they are listed below as having voted for the bill. 90 State Circle http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/07leg/html/ga.html Please say:“Thanks for voting for the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment. The death penalty is an important issue to me. I am part of the growing consensus among Marylanders for repealing the death penalty.” New Study Underscores Exorbitant Cost of Death Penalty in MarylandState taxpayers have paid $37 million for each executionState’s failing death penalty is a ‘financial sinkhole’
What have Maryland’s taxpayers gotten for their $186 million? A system that has clogged our courts, delays justice for victims’ families, and risks execution of an innocent person,” said Jane M. Henderson, executive director of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions. New Jersey Abolishes the Death Penalty! Will Maryland Be Next? Maryland is close to death penalty repeal. We could be the first state to follow New Jersey's lead and end executions in our state once and for all. But we can't do it without you. Momentum for repeal has been steadily building for a while now. And, just as New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has signed death penalty repeal into law, Maryland has a strong ally in Governor O'Malley. Now we need to make sure that those last few fence-sitting legislators hear from their constituents! Please take a few minutes to write a letter to your lawmakers. Tell them how glad you are that repeal passed in New Jersey, and make sure to note how similar Maryland and New Jersey are when it comes to the death penalty:
Please, write that letter or make that phone call as soon as possible. If you don't know who represents you, find out - visit www.mdelect.net or call us at 301-779-5230. New Jersey Abolishes the Death Penalty!To the unknowing observer, it all happened so fast. A little less than two weeks ago the New Jersey Senate's Budget & Appropriations committee voted to send a bill that would repeal the state's death penalty on for consideration by the full Senate. Activists started to get excited and the newspapers took notice. Three votes remained. This past Monday, in the span of six anticipation-packed hours that seemed stretch into days, the Assembly's Law & Public Safety committee passed the bill with only one member voting against it. Just a few hours later, the full Senate returned a favorable vote on the same bill with a five-vote margin of victory. On December 13th, the New Jersey Assembly - the final body to weigh in on death penalty repeal - voted overwhelmingly in favor of striking capital punishment from the state's books. This is history folks. Today New Jersey becomes the first state to legislatively overturn the death penalty since the Supreme Court's ruling in Gregg v. Georgia opened the door to widespread reinstatement in 1976. And, unlike court rulings or executively imposed moratoria, this is final. This is, in essence, the people of New Jersey saying "no more" to death sentences. Read more about New Jersey's repeal bill in the New York Times article: |