A recent editorial in the Washington Post cited trends and statistics from DPIC’s 2008 Year End Report in calling for an end to the death penalty in Maryland. The paper urged Maryland lawmakers to “heed the march of history” and noted that use of the death penalty is declining around the country: “According to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that studies capital punishment, executions nationwide reached a 14-year low in 2008, with only 37 executions carried out, compared with 42 in 2007. A full 95 percent of these executions took place in Southern states, with Texas once again earning the dubious distinction as leader of the pack, with 18 executions — or nearly 50 percent of all executions in the country.” The editorial also cited recent findings from the bipartisan Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment, noting that it found “clear cut evidence that capital punishment in the state neither deters crime nor provides a sense of closure for victims’ families.”

The full editorial may be found below:

A Relic in Maryland
A state commission has given lawmakers more good reasons to end capital punishment.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

With any luck and moral fortitude, Maryland lawmakers will heed the march of history and make 2008 the last year in which the death penalty is legal in the state. After months of study, the bipartisan Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment, formed by the General Assembly and approved by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), has provided clear-cut evidence that capital punishment in the state neither deters crime nor provides a sense of closure for victims’ families.

The commission, chaired by former U.S. attorney general Benjamin Civiletti, concluded that millions of taxpayer dollars are spent — some members of the panel would say wasted — to process these lengthy and complicated cases. Moreover, capital punishment has not been an important or commonly used tool for law enforcement officials: The state has executed only five prisoners since the 1970s, and only five inmates sit on death row today. State lawmakers, who are expected to take up the matter early this year, must have the courage and the wisdom to abolish this increasingly obsolete and consistently barbaric penalty.

Maryland would be in good company following the example of New Jersey, which abolished capital punishment in 2007. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that studies capital punishment, executions nationwide reached a 14-year low in 2008, with only 37 executions carried out, compared with 42 in 2007. A full 95 percent of these executions took place in Southern states, with Texas once again earning the dubious distinction as leader of the pack, with 18 executions — or nearly 50 percent of all executions in the country.

There was one welcome sign, according to the center: Fewer defendants were sentenced to death. In 2008, 111 defendants were given death sentences, four fewer than the year before. The number of new capital sentences has fallen roughly 60 percent since the 1990s.

But until the death penalty is eliminated, the unacceptable risk of executing an innocent person will remain. Four more death row inmates were cleared of all charges last year; three cases were dismissed on the strength of DNA evidence, and the fourth was thrown out after key witnesses recanted statements. Since 1974, when the death penalty was reinstated nationwide, 130 prisoners have been exonerated. The possibility of irrevocable harm may help explain the continued erosion of the public’s support of the death penalty. Only 64 percent of respondents in a Gallup poll said they approved of capital punishment.

The U.S. Supreme Court reflected the evolving standards by refusing to allow capital punishment for anyone convicted of raping a child. Now it is Maryland’s turn: It should lead the way in eliminating the death penalty in 2009.

(Editorial, “A relic in maryland,” Washington Post, January 1, 2009). See Editorials, Innocence, and Recent Legislative Activity.

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