When Maryland​’s leg­is­la­ture again con­venes in January, it is like­ly to con­sid­er a bill to repeal the death penal­ty. Governor Martin O’Malley (pic­tured) has spon­sored such leg­is­la­tion in the past and may do so again. O’Malley has called the death penal­ty ​“inher­ent­ly unjust” and said resources spent on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment could be bet­ter used else­where. Maryland has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion or had a new death sen­tence since 2005. Executions are cur­rent­ly on hold because the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures are unset­tled. A num­ber of states have switched to a one-drug method, but that would require leg­isla­tive changes in Maryland’s death penal­ty law. It is not clear that there are suf­fi­cient votes for such a change. Regardless of the gov­er­nor’s actions, a repeal bill will be put before the leg­is­la­ture. Jane Henderson, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions, said, ​“I think there’s a lot of momen­tum for [repeal]. If it’s going to hap­pen while O’Malley’s still gov­er­nor, this will be the year to do it.”

(J. Wagner, ​“As O’Malley eyes repeal, Md. death row remains at ​‘impasse’,” Washington Post, November 24, 2012). See Recent Legislative Activity and Maryland.

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