Maryland’s Commission on Capital Punishment con­tin­ued with its fourth pub­lic hear­ing on September 5 in Annapolis. Experts tes­ti­fied about the addi­tion­al costs of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment com­pared to life-sen­tence cas­es, the risk of arbi­trari­ness in death sen­tenc­ing, the valid­i­ty of recent deter­rence stud­ies, and the nation­al trends away from the use of the death penal­ty in the U.S. There was also dis­cus­sion about the num­ber of cur­rent cas­es that do not have any DNA evi­dence to con­firm or exclude guilt. 

Several men who had been exon­er­at­ed after spend­ing years on death row spoke to the Commission about their expe­ri­ences. Former Maryland death row inmate Kirk Bloodsworth, who is also a mem­ber of the Commission, tes­ti­fied about the 8 years he spent in prison for a rape and mur­der he did not com­mit. After two sep­a­rate juries found him guilty, post-con­vic­tion DNA tests exon­er­at­ed him and the true per­pe­tra­tor was iden­ti­fied and lat­er con­fessed. ​“I’m liv­ing proof that Maryland gets it wrong,” Bloodsworth said. 

Established ear­li­er this year by Maryland’s General Assembly, the 23-mem­ber Commission is exam­in­ing issues such as racial dis­par­i­ties in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty, the costs of lit­i­gat­ing pro­longed cap­i­tal cas­es as com­pared to life impris­on­ment, and the risk of exe­cut­ing the inno­cent. Following the hear­ings, the Commission will sub­mit a final report of its find­ings and rec­om­men­da­tions by December 15, 2008.

(J. Bykowicz, ​“Sizing up wrong­ful exe­cu­tion risk,” Baltimore Sun, September 6, 2008). See also Studies and Innocence.

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