On March 4, the Maryland Senate reached a com­pro­mise on a death penal­ty repeal bill by amend­ing the bill so as to restrict cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions. The pro­posed revi­sion to the state’s death penal­ty statute would pre­clude mur­der cas­es where the only evi­dence is eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny and, in turn, require DNA evi­dence, video­taped evi­dence, or a vol­un­tary video­taped con­fes­sion. Sen. Jamie Raskin, a Montgomery County Democrat and pro­po­nent of death penal­ty repeal, said his sup­port of the Senate com­pro­mise came with mixed emo­tions. Raskin said sen­a­tors did not pay enough atten­tion to the work of a gov­er­nor-appoint­ed bipar­ti­san com­mis­sion that care­ful­ly stud­ied the state’s death penal­ty. That com­mis­sion, head­ed by for­mer U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, rec­om­mend­ed abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty because of its racial and geo­graph­i­cal dis­par­i­ties, the risk of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son, and its high costs.

The Senate will vote on the amend­ed bill on March 5, and the House may take up a sim­i­lar mea­sure in the near future.

(J. Bykowicz, ​“Senate endors­es ​‘com­pro­mise’ on death penal­ty repeal,” Baltimore Sun, March 4, 2009). See Recent Legislative Activity.

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