Corrections offi­cials, pros­e­cu­tors and police chiefs recent­ly gath­ered in Annapolis, Maryland, to voice sup­port for a leg­isla­tive mea­sure that would repeal the state’s death penal­ty. ​“It is a human sys­tem, and because it is fal­li­ble and because it is human, it makes mis­takes. Executions make those mis­takes irre­versible,” said Matthew Campbell, a for­mer deputy state’s attor­ney for Montgomery and Howard coun­ties. Gary J. Hilton, a for­mer war­den at the Trenton State Prison in New Jersey, added that at one time he was a ​“vig­or­ous sup­port­er” of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, but then he came to believe that the mon­ey it costs to car­ry out a death sen­tence would be bet­ter spent on improv­ing prison equip­ment, updat­ing facil­i­ties, and train­ing staff. He said life with­out parole is the tough­est pun­ish­ment, not­ing, ​“Nothing in this world could be more hor­ri­ble than grow­ing old and dying in jail.” Partrick V. Murphy, a for­mer police com­mis­sion­er of Detroit, Washington and New York, added, ​“The risk of mis­take in admin­is­ter­ing the death penal­ty is fright­en­ing.” In all, about 50 law enforce­ment offi­cials signed a pub­lic state­ment back­ing the repeal mea­sure.

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has voiced sup­port for the repeal bill, argu­ing that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is unjust and cost­ly. The leg­is­la­tion would replace the death penal­ty with life with­out parole.
(Baltimore Sun, March 14, 2007). The for­mer Attorney General of Maryland, Joseph Curran, also sup­ports repeal of the death penal­ty. See New Voices and Recent Legislative Activity. UPDATE: The bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty was defeat­ed in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee by a vote of 5 – 5 on March 15, 2007.

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