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Thread: Maryland Capital Punishment News

  1. #21
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    Death penalty debate reignites in Md.

    In the late 1980s, John Groncki was working as a Baltimore City police officer in the K-9 unit when he came upon four people he believed had just committed an armed robbery.

    He followed standard procedure and searched all four men for weapons. Finding none, he continued to follow protocol and called for a transport, which is when the men were searched again.

    "I was standing there on the side when all of the suspects were being searched and the one individual was hiding a gun in his crotch area," Groncki said. "The little hairs on the back of my neck started going up when he pulled that gun out of the suspect's pants."

    Groncki said he wasn't happy he had missed the gun, but thanked the alleged robber for not killing him.

    "He said, 'I ain't going to death row,' " Groncki recalled. "I think that absolutely prohibited him from using that gun on me -- he simply didn't want to go to death row."

    While the death penalty may have scared the criminal enough to save Groncki's life, whether or not the death penalty is a deterrent has fueled debates for years in statehouses throughout the United States, and Maryland is no exception.

    Maryland is one of the 34 states with the death penalty, and legislators have brought it up for debate each year since 2006. Even though a compromise was approved in 2009, there has been a push to abolish the death penalty every year since, and this year, 66 delegates and 19 senators are sponsoring legislation to repeal the death penalty.

    If the legislation is passed and receives the signature of Gov. Martin O'Malley, it would void the 2009 compromise that requires Maryland prosecutors to not only prove first-degree murder was committed as well as an aggravating crime such as rape or robbery, but state's attorneys would also have to provide DNA evidence, video of the alleged crime or a voluntary, videotaped confession.

    While the 2009 measure was intended to keep the death penalty an option for prosecutors handling capital crimes and ensure no innocent people would be put to death by the state of Maryland, Delegate Rudolph Cane, D-37A-Wicomico, said the state should not be in the business of death.

    "I've had the misfortune or fortune, depending on how you look at it, to meet one of my citizens, Kirk Bloodsworth, who was given the death penalty and later they found he wasn't guilty," said Cane, who is a co-sponsor of this year's bill to abolish the death penalty. "I'm a believer the state should not be in the business of killing and then say 'Oops I made a mistake.' So what can we do to correct it?"

    Bloodsworth was charged with sexual assault, rape and first-degree murder in 1984 after a 9-year-old girl was found strangled, raped and beaten with a rock. The next years he was found guilty at trial and later sentenced to death.

    Then, in 1993, he became the first person to be exonerated from death row with DNA evidence. He had spent eight years in prison for a crime he didn't commit and if not for DNA evidence would have been wrongfully executed by the state. The real criminal was later found, according to The Innocence Project.

    "It would be better not to have the death penalty," Cane said. "I don't think we can afford to make mistakes and find out after the fact we killed the wrong person."

    Other legislators throughout the Lower Shore as well as Wicomico County State's Attorney Matt Maciarello don't agree and say the death penalty can be a useful tool.

    "The biggest problem for us in Maryland if it's taken away is the only charge you have left at the top is life without parole," said Delegate Mike McDermott, R-38B-Worcester. "When you start negotiating with someone over a heinous crime and your start is the death penalty, then life without parole can look pretty good."

    If the legislation is passed, some of the elected officials from the Lower Shore, including Senators Richard Colburn, R-37-Dorchester, and Jim Mathias, D-38-Worcester, and Delegate Charles Otto, R-38A-Somerset, fear there would no longer be a strong deterrent in place to prevent people from committing murder.

    Mathias said ultimately people are responsible for their actions.

    "I believe in a society most people are good, but I think, unfortunately, we have to have these laws because some people aren't," he said. "They need to be enforceable and they need to evolve as we go along."

    Since the compromise in 2009, there have been five cases throughout Maryland in which prosecutors have given notice they intend to seek the death penalty and one case in which that notification is pending. There are five inmates on death row now, and no executions have been performed in the state since that time.

    The cost of maintaining those five inmates was reduced in June 2010 when the Department of Corrections transferred them from the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center to the North Branch Correctional Institute. Following the move, the DOC said the cost of maintaining a death row inmate became similar to that of a maximum security inmate.

    Because three of the five inmates have been in prison for more than 26 years, replacing the death penalty with life without parole isn't likely to have any impact on the budget of the DOC, according to a report from the Department of Legislative Services.

    Even given the relatively minor financial change, Maciarello said he would like to continue having the death penalty as an option.

    "If someone is already serving two life sentences without parole, there should be an ultimate punishment for a criminal that commits murder while he or she is in the custody of our state," said Maciarello, who said victims' families should have some voice in the process. "The reality is that there is no political will to carry out the death penalty. We have family members of victims who have long passed, yet their killer lives on for decades."

    http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/2...WS01/203180302
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  2. #22
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    Death penalty repeal back on Maryland legislative agenda
    Failure of repeal in California will have little effect, advocates say

    Despite the high-profile failure of a measure to repeal the death penalty in California, Maryland activists are optimistically looking to the 2013 legislative session to end capital punishment in the state.

    “We think this is the year to pass this repeal,” said Jane Henderson, executive director of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions.

    Henderson cites what appears to be a less-cluttered agenda for the session as reason for optimism.

    “We came up short last year largely because there was so much on the agenda,” Henderson said.

    Bills to repeal the death penalty have been introduced, and failed to reach the floor of either chamber for a vote, in 10 of the past 12 legislative sessions.

    In California, voters on Nov. 6 defeated an initiative to repeal the death penalty, which was instituted in 1978 via another initiative. In 1978, the electorate voted 71.1 percent in favor of the death penalty. This year, 52.3 percent were opposed to the repeal.

    “It was a close vote,” Henderson said. “A huge shift in public opinion is shown in that.”

    Thirty-four states have the death penalty. In Maryland, five inmates are on death row.

    Sen. Lisa A. Gladden (D-Dist. 41) of Baltimore, who has sponsored legislation in the past and reintroduced a bill again this year, is less optimistic about the chance for passage, but said she would be happy just to see both chambers take a vote on the issue.

    In past years, the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee has squashed a repeal bill before it could come to a vote. Gladden, the vice chairwoman of the committee, said that one of the 11 members would have to have a change of heart for the bill to make it to the floor in 2013.

    “I think it’s this year or no year,” Gladden said. “But we still need to work with the politics of the House [of Delegates], and on the committee.”

    Gladden and House sponsor Del. Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg (D-Dist. 41) of Baltimore, are adding language this year allocating any funds saved in repealing the death penalty to support the families of murder victims. Capital cases, in which prosecutors seek the death penalty, tend to be significantly more expensive to prosecute than noncapital cases.

    “If you think about all the hundreds of families in Baltimore who are left when someone is killed, there are not enough resources for those families,” Gladden said. “We can take the money we would have used killing people and put it toward support of victims.”

    According to the Office of the Public Defender, capital cases cost about $1.9 million annually in the legal system. The office estimates that the same cases could be tried as noncapital cases for about $650,000.

    In 2009, the General Assembly passed legislation that restricted the use of the death penalty to cases with DNA evidence, video confession or conclusive video evidence.

    “There are a lot of hoops to jump through,” said Sen. Nancy Jacobs (R-Dist. 34) of Abingdon, a member of the Senate Judicial Committee who has voted against the repeal bill in the past. “We have safeguards in [the regulations].”

    Maryland has held no executions since 2006, when the Court of Appeals ruled that the protocols for lethal injection were adopted incorrectly and are ineffective until either the public weighs in under the Administrative Procedure Act or the General Assembly exempts the protocols from the law.

    In 2011, the drug sodium thiopental, an anesthetic used during lethal injections, was removed from the market.

    “If you have a death penalty on the books, and duly promulgated regulations, you should be able to move forward on it,” said Sen. Christopher B. Shank (R-Dist. 2) of Hagerstown, who also is on the Judicial Proceedings Committee and opposes repeal. “If the General Assembly needs to makes some clarifications so that can happen, we should do that.”

    Jacobs also favors putting new protocols in place to allow executions to proceed.

    “One of my constituents was murdered, and the gentleman got the death penalty,” Jacobs said. “To many people, it’s a matter of principle.”

    http://www.gazette.net/article/20121...mplate=gazette
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  3. #23
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    Miller thinks death penalty repeal will pass in Md.

    Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller says he thinks a repeal of the death penalty will pass in Maryland.

    Miller, who supports capital punishment, said Wednesday on WEAA-FM that he will find a way to get the bill to the full Senate, if Gov. Martin O’Malley gets enough votes for it.

    O’Malley said Tuesday he believes he is within two votes in the Senate of banning it, and he expressed confidence that finding the other two votes was very possible.

    Miller, speaking Wednesday on the first day of session, says he believes repeal will pass the Senate and the House of Delegates. He also said he believes death penalty supporters will petition a repeal bill to the voters to decide in a statewide vote.

    Read more: http://thedailyrecord.com/2013/01/09...#ixzz2HUo7QYE3
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  4. #24
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    Gov. Martin O'Malley seeks to abolish Md. death penalty

    Maryland's last execution occurred in 2005, when death row inmate Wesley Eugene Baker was put to death under former Gov. Bob Ehrlich, R-Md.

    But if the current governor, Democrat Martin O'Malley, has his druthers, Baker's execution may mark the end of capital punishment in the state.

    O'Malley announced Tuesday that he will file legislation to repeal the death penalty in Maryland, framing the abolition as a step toward greater justice and a nod to fiscal prudence.

    "The death penalty is expensive and it does not work," O'Malley said, "And for that reason alone, I believe we should stop doing it."

    O'Malley noted that "If you look over the last 30 or 40 years, the death penalty was on the books, and yet Baltimore still became the most violent and addicted city in America. Having the death penalty on the books did nothing to keep the homicides from rising."

    While he conceded that "Good people on both sides of the issue have, in the past, disagreed about the morality of the death penalty," he argued, "I think there is increasingly less disagreement about its effectiveness."

    But he did not avoid the dispute over capital punishment's morality, pointing to the results of a 2008 commission in Maryland that found that "for every 8.7 Americans sent to death row, there has been one innocent person exonerated."

    O'Malley also cited the commission's finding that "the administration of the death penalty clearly shows racial bias" as evidence of injustice.

    The NAACP applauded O'Malley's announcement and argued that the death penalty "does not deter crime and is used almost exclusively on the poor."

    "The death penalty squanders millions of law enforcement dollars that could be better spent on victims' services and catching killers still at large," NAACP CEO Ben Jealous said in a statement.

    Maryland's legislature would have to approve O'Malley's legislation, though there are some, including some Democrats, who have said they'll resist his repeal effort.

    "You need the ultimate penalty there so that if they take a plea, a murderer and a rapist, the plea is life without parole, and they never ever walk the streets again," Democratic state senator James Brochin, who said he would vote against repeal legislation, told the Washington Times. "If you start with life without parole, and that's the worst thing you get, and the state's attorney takes a plea to life, then conceivably a rapist and a murderer can walk out after 25 or 30 years."

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  5. #25
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    Poll: Marylanders Favor Life Without Parole Over Death Penalty

    By Bryan P. Sears

    Nearly two-thirds of Marylanders surveyed say a sentence of life without parole is an acceptable alternative to the death penalty.

    The results are part of a survey released early Wednesday morning by Annapolis-based Gonzales Research.

    The poll 801 state residents found that support for the death penalty in the state has slipped to 49 percent. In 2011, that same poll found that 56 percent of those polled favored the death penalty.

    Opposition to the death penalty comes from Democrats and blacks at nearly 60 percent each. Republicans, independents and whites all favor the retention of capital punishment, according to the poll.

    Gov. Martin O'Malley has made the repeal of the death penalty one of his legislative priorities for the 2013 Maryland General Assembly session.


    Support for Stricter Gun Laws

    At the top of O'Malley's legislative agenda is a slate of stricter gun laws.

    Statewide, 58 percent of those surveyed said they would favor banning the sale of assault weapons.

    The poll also found that 88 percent of those surveyed favored background checks for people purchasing firearms at gun shows.

    Also, about 44 percent of those surveyed said stricter gun laws would do more to prevent violence in schools compared to 36 percent who said armed guards or police officers would reduce violence in schools.

    Read more: http://silverspring.patch.com/articl...-death-penalty

  6. #26
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    In death penalty debate, Marylanders argue about cost of executions

    As Maryland legislators debate whether to repeal the death penalty, Gov. O’Malley and foes of executions have repeatedly claimed that it costs more to kill a murderer than to let him live.

    That is an argument O’Malley made in Wednesday’s State of the State address, as he has before. “The death penalty is expensive and it does not work. It is not a deterrent,” O’Malley said.

    That was the verdict of the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment he appointed, which voted 13-9 to abolish the death penalty. The commission report said “the vast resources that are currently devoted to an uncertain and arbitrary death sentence system could be better utilized to stop homicides and other violent crimes before they occur.”

    Cost of incarceration vs. execution

    In its 2008 report, the commission wrote that the average cost of prosecuting and imprisoning a Death Row inmate was $3 million, nearly three times higher than the cost of convicting and sentencing a murderer to life imprisonment. Of that $3 million, $1.7 million is spent in the courtroom and $1.3 million is spent in a Supermax prison, the commission wrote.

    By contrast, when the death penalty is not sought in a murder case, the state spends $1.1 million on each convict, which includes $250,000 for the attorneys’ fees and $870,000 for life imprisonment, according to the commission’s report. Those costs skyrocket when the state seeks the death penalty, whether its effort is successful or not.

    The commission determined that the state spent $1.8 million dollars for every failed attempt to impose the death penalty, including $950,000 in prison costs and $850,000 in adjudication costs.

    The commission’s findings were based on research by the Abell Foundation and the Urban Institute, two organizations that jointly released a study projecting the total cost of capital prosecutions in Maryland from1978 to 1999. The study, “The Cost of the Death Penalty in Maryland,” estimated that the state had spent $186 million pursuing capital cases during that period, even though it had executed only five people.

    Death penalty advocates dispute study

    This estimate was disputed by death penalty advocates on the commission, and in their dissent, the nine commissioners wrote that the statistic was “at best, inflated, and at worst, ridiculous.”

    The study’s calculations were based, in part, on the principle of opportunity cost, a measurement of the value of resources devoted to death penalty cases that could be used for other purposes. So the study included the labor costs of state prosecutors and public defenders, as well as the value of court space, in its projection of the total cost of the death penalty, a method which the commission’s minority characterized as deeply flawed.

    “The concept and testimony of ‘opportunity costs’ may have wide application as an economic theory in other areas of study, but it is completely irrelevant when used to analyze the realities of the death penalty as applied here in Maryland,” they wrote, adding that state’s attorneys were paid precisely the same salaries regardless of the number of death penalty cases. “None of their cases suffered and no cases were dismissed because they were trying a death penalty case. No opportunities were lost because the death penalty was pursued.”

    More attorneys and more litigation

    The commission’s majority countered these objections, writing that capital cases routinely required more attorneys and more litigation than non-capital murder trials. In addition, the majority wrote, a Death Row inmate’s incarceration is nearly twice as expensive as housing an inmate with a life sentence. An inmate’s detention on Death Row costs $68,000 annually, roughly $30,000 more per year than it costs to imprison a murderer with a life sentence.

    The commission’s death penalty supporters conceded that it costs more for the state to impose the death penalty than a life sentence, but they argued that these additional costs “are justified and are not substantial” and posed the question, “Is cost analysis ever the sole valid consideration when justice is the goal?”

    http://baltimorepostexaminer.com/in-...ons/2013/02/04
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  7. #27
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    O’Malley to testify on death penalty repeal

    Gov. Martin O’Malley will testify in Annapolis on a measure to repeal the death penalty in Maryland.

    O’Malley is scheduled to speak Thursday before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee and the House Judiciary Committee.

    The Democratic governor, who opposes capital punishment, pushed for repeal in 2009 and fell short.

    O’Malley says he believes the Maryland General Assembly has the will to ban capital punishment this session.

    Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller has also said that he believes repeal legislation will pass this year. Miller is a supporter of the death penalty.

    Since 1976, Maryland has executed five people. Five men remain on death row.

    NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori will be among those testifying.

    Read more: http://thedailyrecord.com/2013/02/14...#ixzz2KsWgrDkI
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #28
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    Panel to vote on death penalty, gun bills next week

    This slow-starting session of the Maryland General Assembly may receive a jolt next week when a Senate committee votes on bills that would eliminate the death penalty and enact a number of new gun control measures.

    Sen. Brian E. Frosh, who chairs the Judicial Proceedings Committee, said his panel may vote on the bills on Thursday. Both pieces of legislation were proposed by Gov. Martin O’Malley.

    “It’s going to be a close vote,” said Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat.

    There will be amendments to both bills, Frosh said, but it does not appear the gun legislation will be split into multiple bills. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., who has a problem with O’Malley’s handgun licensing proposal, has urged Frosh’s committee to detach that component from the rest of the package, which also restricts mental health patients’ ability to possess firearms and bans assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

    Miller said during a Senate session Friday, though, that Frosh is “determined” to keep the measures together.

    If the bills are reported favorably out of the judicial panel, they could be debated by the full Senate this month.

    http://thedailyrecord.com/eyeonannap...lls-next-week/

  9. #29
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    Senate panel approves death penalty repeal, altered gun bill

    By Michael Dresser and Erin Cox, The Baltimore Sun

    12:21 a.m. EST, February 22, 2013

    The General Assembly took an important step toward repealing Maryland's death penalty Thursday night when a key committee, for the first time in decades, approved a bill to end capital punishment.

    The Senate Judicial Proceedings committee voted 6-5 to send Gov. Martin O'Malley's death penalty bill to the Senate floor, with Sen. Robert A. Zirkin, a Baltimore County Democrat, dropping his long-held opposition to repeal of capital punishment and providing the decisive vote.

    It was one of two major pieces of the governor's agenda to move to Senate floor. The same panel also began crafting changes to O'Malley's gun-control package that proposed some of the nation's strictest gun laws and the governor declared his top priority for the General Assembly session.

    The committee rolled back some of the provisions requiring handgun licenses and barred from gun ownership people involuntarily committed to a mental hospital. It gave the bill initial approval in a 7-4 vote close to midnight.

    The bill repealing the death penalty is expected to go before the full Senate next week. Advocates say they have the votes there and in the House of Delegates to pass it, and they welcomed Thursday's action by a committee that has been seen as an obstacle to their position.

    "I'm elated that the committee has come to a place where they recognize it's time to have this vote on the floor," said Jane Henderson, executive director of Citizens Against State Executions. Henderson said the NAACP's push for repeal in Maryland was "instrumental" in changing the dynamic this year.

    With Zirkin's vote, she said, repeal advocates count at least 26 Senate votes for the bill — two more than needed. Henderson said she's confident the Senate would muster the 29 votes needed to end a filibuster if one is attempted.

    Before casting his vote, Zirkin told the committee he would probably never be comfortable with his decision no matter which way he came down. He said he was torn between his emotional response toward brutal murderers and the "legal and practical" arguments that the death penalty system doesn't work.

    "As heinous and awful as these individuals are, I think it's time for our state not to be involved in the apparatus of executions," he said.

    NAACP President Ben Jealous and Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger, who debated the death penalty Thursday night before a crowd of about 50 at a forum hosted by The Baltimore Sun, had differing reactions.

    Jealous cheered the committee's action and said that if repeal succeeds in Maryland, it could help push a U.S. Supreme Court decision to eliminate it throughout the country.

    "This is a state that has repeatedly sought to evolve and be a beacon for the rest of the country," Jealous said.

    Shellenberger, a Democrat who told the committee when he testified that the death penalty should be kept for the "worst of the worst," said he was "obviously very disappointed."

    "I still have some hope that when it hits the Senate floor that there will be enough opposition and hopefully some constituents will let their senators know how they feel," he said. "There's still always a chance that we may hang on and keep the death penalty."

    The Judicial Proceedings vote for repeal was the first for that committee since 1969, when the measure was defeated on the Senate floor, according to the Assembly's library staff. The panel temporarily blocked repeal in 2009, but the measure was brought to the floor in a rarely used parliamentary maneuver. The bill was amended on the floor that year to retain the death penalty but to allow it only in cases where the prosecution could meet one of the highest evidentiary standards in the country.

    Besides Zirkin, voting for repeal in committee Thursday were the panel's chairman, Sen. Brian E. Frosh; Sen. Lisa A. Gladden of Baltimore; Sen. C. Anthony Muse of Prince George's; and Sens. Jennie Forehand and Jamie Raskin of Montgomery County. All are Democrats.

    Voting against the bill were Democratic Sens. James Brochin and Norman Stone of Baltimore County and Republican Sens. Nancy Jacobs of Harford, Joseph Getty of Carroll and Christopher Shank of Washington County.

    Opponents of repeal argued that there are cases in which the death penalty is the only appropriate sanction — especially when a convicted killer commits another murder in prison.

    "We have murders in our prison system. We have murderers who say they are natural-born killers," Getty said.

    Five men, all convicted murderers, remain on death row in Maryland for killings that go back as far as 1983. The state has not executed a prisoner since 2005. The Maryland Court of Appeals imposed a de facto moratorium in 2006 when it threw out the rules under which executions are carried out. Those regulations have not been replaced amid complaints from death penalty supporters that the O'Malley administration has been dragging its feet.

    After approving the repeal bill, the committee for nearly four hours debated O'Malley's gun control bill. Among other things, the legislation would ban the sale of guns classified as assault weapons, limit the size of gun magazines to 10 bullets and institute a licensing system for handgun purchases. The measure also would limit access to guns by some people with mental illnesses.

    The committee rolled back governor's controversial plan to require a license to buy a handgun. The panel unanimously cut the number of training hours required from eight to four, halved the license fee from $100 to $50 and doubled the life of a handgun licenses to 10 years.

    Even with the changes, gun-control advocates praised the bill "as the best way to prevent gun violence," said Vincent DeMarco, president of Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence.

    The committee also carved out an exemption to allow the manufacture of assault weapons to be sold outside Maryland — a nod to Beretta USA, headquartered in Prince George's County. Other changes ensured hunters under 21 years old would be allowed to possess ammunition and expanded the people barred gun ownership to include those involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.

    Senators who supported the gun package acknowledged there was more work to be done on rules that limit access to firearms for people with mental illnesses, raising concerns that current provisions may deter people in crisis from seeking help.

    Frosh, the committee's chairman, said he didn't think the gun proposal "was perfect" and that more changes could be expected on the Senate floor.

    House Majority Leader Kumar P. Barve said Thursday that he thinks both death penalty repeal and stricter gun laws will muster at least the 71 votes they need to pass the House of Delegates.

    "These are going to be controversial and emotional issues, but I suspect we can find the votes for both," said Barve, a Democrat from Montgomery County.

    Barve said he believes consensus is growing in Maryland for both measures, and lawmakers' votes will reflect that.

    A poll released last month by the Annapolis-based firm OpinionWorks showed Maryland voters favor the assault weapons ban 62 percent to 35 percent, and back the gun-magazine limit 71 percent to 24 percent. The poll did not ask about handgun licensing.

    On the death penalty, the same poll found that Marylanders are closely divided — with 48 percent opposing repeal and 42 percent favoring it. Other polls have found that when voters are asked whether life without parole would be an acceptable alternative, a majority say yes.

    Death penalty repeal supporters have said they were determined to bring a "clean" bill to the Senate floor — that is, without any amendments creating exceptions for certain types of murders.

    Brochin offered an amendment allowing capital punishment but narrowing Maryland's death penalty even further so that murderers could only be executed on the strength of DNA evidence. It was defeated 6-5. He tried again with a proposal creating an exception to repeal in the case of multiple murders in the same incident. It failed by the same margin.

    Frosh stripped language from the bill devoting $500,000 in anticipated annual savings from repeal to assistance to survivors of murder victims because of concern the provision could preclude a referendum on the issue.

    Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller has said he expects that if the General Assembly approves a repeal law, opponents will gather enough signatures to petition the measure to a vote in the November 2014 election. He said nothing should be included in the bill that could keep the issue from the voters.

    Despite an attorney general's opinion to the contrary, there was concern that the financial-assistance language could be interpreted as making the measure an appropriations bill. Under the state Constitution, such bills cannot be petitioned to referendum.

    Opponents of the gun bill offered more than a dozen amendments as the panel worked into the night, but nearly all were rejected.

    "There were a lot of good modifications, but not enough," said Sen. Nancy Jacobs, a Harford County Republican. "People were not taking the proposals seriously."

    Shannon Alford, the National Rifle Association's lobbyist in Annapolis, said that while the amended version is better, "it's still a humongous blow to the Second Amendment rights of Maryland's law-abiding citizens."

    http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/mar...033,full.story

  10. #30
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    I just saw this on the news. Royally sucks that MD killed the DP.

    Someone do something to prevent more states from outlawing justice!

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