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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