On March 6, the Maryland Senate passed SB 276 by a vote of 27 – 20. The bill replaces the death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life with­out parole for future offens­es. The bill appears like­ly to pass the House of Delegates, and Governor Martin O’Malley has pledged to sign it. The bill would not affect the inmates cur­rent­ly on death row. If passed by the House and signed into law, Maryland would become the sixth state in six years, and the 18th over­all to aban­don cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Maryland has five peo­ple on death row and has car­ried out five exe­cu­tions since rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty in 1978. There have been no exe­cu­tions since 2005. Connecticut, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, and New Jersey are the oth­er states that have end­ed the impo­si­tion of death sen­tences since 2007.

(DPIC post­ed, March 6, 2013; read DPIC’s Press Release). See Recent Legislative Activity and Maryland.

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