The leg­isla­tive com­mis­sion estab­lished to exam­ine the death penal­ty in Maryland has rec­om­mend­ed abo­li­tion of the pun­ish­ment by a vote of 13 – 9. The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment released its final report on December 12, detail­ing the rea­sons for its rec­om­men­da­tion. ​“There is no good and suf­fi­cient rea­son to have the death penal­ty,” Chairman Benjamin R. Civiletti said at a news con­fer­ence. Regarding the com­mis­sion’s rec­om­men­da­tion of repeal rather than reform, he said, ​“There are so many faults, so many flaws with­in the sys­tem that we could not imag­ine … ways in which to cure it.”

According to their final report, the Commission pre­sent­ed the fol­low­ing find­ings:

• 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 Commission finds that 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.
• While DNA test­ing has become a wide­ly accept­ed method for deter­min­ing guilt or inno­cence, it does not elim­i­nate the risk of sen­tenc­ing inno­cent per­sons to death since, in many cas­es, DNA evi­dence is not avail­able and, even when it is avail­able, is sub­ject to con­t­a­m­i­na­tion or error at the scene of the offense or in the lab­o­ra­to­ry.
• 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.

The statute passed by the General Assembly dur­ing the 2008 Legislative Session called for the Commission to be com­prised of 23 appointees rep­re­sent­ing a broad diver­si­ty of views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, as well as the racial, eth­nic, gen­der, and geo­graph­ic diver­si­ty of the State. It includ­ed police offi­cers, cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers, fam­i­ly mem­bers of mur­der vic­tims, pros­e­cu­tors and defense attor­neys, an inno­cent Maryland man sen­tenced to death who was lat­er exon­er­at­ed, and oth­er mem­bers of Maryland’s com­mu­ni­ty.

The Commission heard 35 hours of tes­ti­mo­ny dur­ing 5 pub­lic hear­ings. The Commission also held five addi­tion­al meet­ings where the tes­ti­mo­ny and evi­dence pre­sent­ed to the Commission was dis­cussed and lat­er vot­ed upon.

Detailed vote counts on each of the find­ings of the Commission are con­tained in the final report. Votes on many of the find­ings in the report were near­ly unan­i­mous. The final report and minor­i­ty report are avail­able for view at the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment Web site, http://​goc​cp​.mary​land​.gov/​c​a​p​i​t​a​l​-​p​u​n​i​s​h​ment/

(J., Bykowicz, ​“Commission votes to rec­om­mend Md. death penal­ty repeal,” Baltimore Sun, December 12, 2008). See Recent Legislative Activity and Studies.

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