Page 7 of 8 FirstFirst ... 5678 LastLast
Results 61 to 70 of 72

Thread: Maryland Capital Punishment News

  1. #61
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    May 31, 2013

    Petition drive to halt Maryland’s death penalty repeal falls short

    By John Wagner
    The Washington Post

    The law repealing Maryland’s death penalty will take effect as scheduled on Oct. 1 after opponents failed to collect enough signatures to put the issue to a statewide vote.

    MDPetitions.com, the group that helped put same-sex marriage and two other issues on last year’s ballot, confirmed at a Friday afternoon news conference that it was unable to replicate its success. Facing a midnight deadline to submit an initial batch of signatures, the group instead ended its effort.

    “There’s just not a natural constituency to go to,” said Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger (D), a supporter of the death penalty who worked with the group, in explaining the difficulty.

    Meanwhile, Free State Petitions, a separate group trying to halt Maryland’s new gun-control law, remained mum about its progress as the deadline approached.

    Both groups were trying to put new laws championed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) on hold pending a November 2014 vote. To comply with a constitutional requirement, petition-gatherers were scrambling to present the first third of a required 55,736 signatures to the state on Friday. If that threshold were crossed, the remainder would be due a month later.

    With its new repeal law, Maryland becomes the sixth state in as many years to abolish capital punishment. The legislation was a priority this year for the NAACP and the Catholic Church.

    Jane Henderson, executive director of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions, said she was not surprised that the petition drive fell short.

    “My gut had told me it was going to be a real challenge,” Henderson said. “People are comfortable with this.”

    She added that she is happy to avoid a drawn-out campaign over the issue. “I’m really looking forward to doing something else for the next 18 months,” Henderson said.

    MDPetitions.com was the same group that spearheaded successful petition drives that resulted in three measures on Maryland’s ballot last year: same-sex marriage, in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants and congressional redistricting.

    Aided by Internet technology that made gathering signatures easier, some Republicans touted the successful efforts as a new check on the Democrat-led legislature. But voters upheld all three measures in November.

    Shellenberger said the outcome at the ballot box probably made petition-gathering more difficult this year, particularly in recruiting volunteers.

    “I think people realized that just the signatures isn’t enough,” he said.

    Shellenberger said MDPetitions.com collected more than 15,000 signatures on the death penalty repeal, shy of the 18,579 required for the drive to continue. Given that many signatures are typically disallowed, the group, which is led by Del. Neil C. Parrott (R-Washington), had a goal of turning in at least 23,000, he said.

    The new gun-control law signed by O’Malley bans assault weapons and limits magazines to no more than 10 bullets. Residents buying a gun are required to give fingerprints and obtain a photo ID similar to a driver’s license. They also have to spend eight hours in a gun-safety training class.

    Some pro-gun groups decided not to participate in the petition drive, arguing that legal action is a better course for overturning the law.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...prss=rss_local

  2. #62
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Maryland has nearly six million people and they couldn't get 18,579 signatures? Sheesh!

  3. #63
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Md. governor slow to commute death sentences

    Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, an outspoken death penalty opponent considering a 2016 presidential run, has yet to commute the sentences of the state's five death row inmates despite his role in pushing a repeal of capital punishment in a measure he signed in May that takes effect next month.

    O'Malley, a Democrat, has said only that he would consider commuting the five inmates' sentences to life in prison on a case-by-case basis.

    So far, none has sent the governor a formal commutation request, but the governor doesn't need formal requests to commute sentences.

    The governor's decision to put off action on their commutations may indicate he does not believe he needs to take the potential political risk of clearing death row at a time when the state no longer has a mechanism to carry out a death sentence anyway.

    http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013...-row-maryland/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  4. #64
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Md. Law Repealing Death Penalty Goes Into Effect

    ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Maryland's law repealing the death penalty went into effect Tuesday.

    Maryland is now the 18th state to end capital punishment.

    Those found guilty of first-degree murder will now face a life sentence or life without the possibility of parole.

    "I do believe it was political because when we look at the daily occurrence of who gets a death sentence and how many people have been put to death since they have been going with these cases, there hasn't been anybody that has been put to death," said Del. Kelly Schulz, (R) - Frederick County.

    Many legislators who voted for the law said they did so for moral reasons, but the majority of Western Maryland lawmakers voted against it and say it should still be in place as a tool for prosecutors to use.

    "When you talk to the state's attorneys and you talk to them about moving forward and how they're able to affect change through the legal system, they were adamantly opposed to this because it takes away their options," Schulz said.

    Another major Maryland laws going into effect today include one creating stiffer penalties for preventing or interfering with the report of suspected child abuse. Delegate Michael Hough of Frederick and Washington Counties is the law's sponsor.

    Slayer's Law also went into effect, which makes it illegal for someone convicted of first-degree murder to profit off the estate of his or her victim. This law is named after Frederick resident Ann Sue Metz, who was murdered by her husband. Delegate Kelly Schulz of Frederick County sponsored the law.

    http://www.your4state.com/story/md-l...s0K4-jc3vOSuGg

  5. #65
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    O'Malley asks to meet with families of death row inmates' victims

    By Justin Fenton, The Baltimore Sun

    With two months left in office, Gov. Martin O'Malley has asked to meet with at least two families whose loved ones were killed by men on Maryland's death row — a move that might signal the governor is poised to take action on death penalty cases.

    Since the state acted last year to abolish the death penalty for future cases, advocates on both sides of the issue have been watching to see whether O'Malley would grant clemency to four men already on death row.

    Mary Francis Moore of Boonsboro is scheduled to talk with O'Malley on Monday about one of them, Heath William Burch, who in 1995 killed Moore's father and his wife with scissors during a drug-fueled break-in of their home.

    "We're very upset with this. We don't know what's happening," said Moore, 71, who said she and her family fear O'Malley might decide to grant Burch clemency. "The way they keep changing things, is this guy going to eventually get out?"

    Dorothy Atkinson of Salisbury, whose son was murdered by death row inmate Jody Lee Miles in 1997, said an aide to O'Malley called her Tuesday and said the governor wanted to speak with her. A date for their meeting has not been set.

    Though Atkinson believes Miles deserves to be executed, she submitted a letter to O'Malley two weeks ago, asking him to commute Miles' sentence to put an end to court proceedings, which she says are painful for the family.

    Atkinson said she is angry the case has dragged on so long but glad O'Malley will meet with her.

    "He's not been through this. He doesn't know what it's like," she said.

    Meanwhile, Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger — a staunch death penalty supporter — said the governor's office contacted him in an attempt to locate relatives of the victims of death row inmates Vernon Evans and Anthony Grandison.

    "Unfortunately, we really do not have any family members in those cases, because so many people have passed away over the passage of time," Shellenberger said. Evans and Grandison were convicted of the contract murder of two people in a Pikesville hotel in 1983.

    O'Malley has largely refused to discuss the fate of the men who were already sentenced to death when Maryland repealed the death penalty, saying only that he would consider each case as requests for clemency reached his desk. A lawyer for Burch said recently that he submitted such a petition earlier this year.

    A spokesman for the governor declined to comment for this article.

    This month, Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler said his office has concluded that the state no longer has the authority to execute anyone, even though the repeal legislation was not intended to be retroactive. Gansler is joining lawyers for Miles in arguing that the state can't issue new regulations for how to carry out executions now that capital punishment has been abolished. The old rules were thrown out by a court in 2006.

    Though Miles' appeal faces an uncertain outcome in the courts, Gansler noted that O'Malley has the ability with the stroke of a pen to commute death sentences to life without parole. Governors in Illinois and New Jersey commuted the existing death sentences in their states after the repeal of capital punishment.

    Shellenberger opposes commutation. "We believe that the convictions in Evans and Grandison have been upheld on appeal, on numerous occasions. The law passed that repealed the death penalty did nothing to change the validity of those convictions," Shellenberger said.

    Jane Henderson, executive director of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions, said O'Malley should commute the sentences of all four death row inmates and was pleased to hear he had reached out to victims' relatives.

    "One of the biggest reasons [to commute the sentences] is just to end this and not put the families through more legal procedures, when everyone knows there's no way to carry out a death sentence in Maryland," Henderson said.

    Burch, 45, was sentenced to die in 1996 for killing Robert Davis, 70, and Cleo Davis, 77, in their Capitol Heights home. Moore said it has been years since she heard anything about the case. She said O'Malley's aides did not specifically say why he was seeking the meeting but mentioned Burch.

    O'Malley's "been in there how many years and never touched this. Now all of a sudden he's paying attention?" said Moore, who lives in Washington County. "It's like he's trying to get this resolved before he leaves."

    Moore said her conversation with O'Malley on Monday will be over the phone. She declined a face-to-face meeting, not because she does not want to meet with the governor, but because she generally prefers to stay at home with her family on their farm. She said her mind has been racing about what the governor wants to speak to her about.

    "I've got to get myself prepared," she said. "I've got to write things down. I want to be able to kind of go step to step with him."

    Moore believes the move might be politically motivated, with O'Malley, a Democrat, preparing to leave office and with the election of a new governor, Republican Larry Hogan, who opposed the repeal of capital punishment. Hogan has been noncommittal about the remaining inmates.

    Burch's attorney, Michael E. Lawlor, could not be reached for comment Thursday. Earlier this month, he said the "basic element of consistency and fairness would seem to dictate that these four individuals be removed from death row and given sentences of life."

    Burch lived down the street from the Davises, and admitted in court that he was high on crack and intended to rob them to get money to buy more drugs.

    Robert Davis, a World War II veteran and retired Washington, D.C., firefighter, confronted Burch with a gun but didn't fire after he recognized his neighbor.

    Burch beat and stabbed the couple dozens of times with a pair of scissors, stole four guns and a small amount of cash, and fled in their pickup truck.

    He was sentenced to two death sentences, one of which the state's highest court overturned. The appeal divided the seven-member Court of Appeals, with Chief Judge Robert M. Bell writing that errors in sentencing meant the court should overturn both death sentences.

    A Prince George's County judge signed his death warrant in 2004, and execution dates have been set, only to be canceled.

    Moore's uncle and Robert Davis' brother, Jack, said Burch should have been put to death years ago.

    "He should get what he's sentenced to," Jack Davis, who now lives in Florida, said Thursday.

    Davis said he initially had mixed emotions when the sentence was handed down — "I'm not a killer," he said — but he believes Burch's sentence should be upheld.

    "The judge ordered to give him the death penalty. What the hell does the governor have to change that?" he said.

    http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#secti.../p2p-82041685/

  6. #66
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Maryland Gov. commutes four death penalty sentences

    Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley says he will commute the capital sentences of the state’s last four inmates on death row to life in prison.

    In a statement released Wednesday, the outgoing Democratic governor says leaving the death sentences in place “does not serve the public good of the people of Maryland.”

    Two years ago, the state legislature abolished the death penalty, making the ultimate sentence in new cases life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    That left four previously sentenced inmates on death row.

    The governor noted in his statement that the state’s attorney general recently asserted that carrying out prior sentences would be illegal in the absence of an existing statute.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...icle-1.2061877
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  7. #67
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Op-Ed

    Maryland should reinstate the death penalty

    By Scott Shellenberger and Richard E. Vatz

    Larry Hogan won the Maryland governorship by conceding that some social issues were settled — such as gay marriage, gun control and abortion — but saying that the state had gone too far on other matters such as taxation and spending.

    No controversy better exemplifies this overcorrection than the elimination of capital punishment from Maryland's criminal justice system.

    The death penalty should be reinstated in Maryland. Here's why:

    1. If, God forbid, an egregious murderer were to target children, such as was done in the Pakistani city of Peshawar in mid-December, wherein over 100 children were murdered by a half dozen Taliban, Maryland must not have only life imprisonment at its disposal. The death penalty must be available for the most unspeakable crimes wherein children or other innocents are targeted.

    2. Public opinion is somewhat unstable, but mostly in support of judicious use of execution for monstrous crimes or, as we like to call them, the worst of the worst.

    Following the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh, which killed 168 people and injured hundreds more, polling support for state-imposed executions reached over 80 percent, for example.

    3. The number of law enforcement officers shot in the line of duty increased by 50 percent in 2014. The leading method of those shootings was ambush-style attacks. The death penalty should be an option for those prosecutors who wish to seek it when an officer is killed.

    4. A state's availability of capital punishment, despite arguments to the contrary, provides a deterrent against capital crime. Singapore uses it consistently, and Britain has abolished it, which has led to decreases and increases in capital crime respectively. Accused murderers rarely want the death penalty if convicted.

    5. Lifers without parole are free to murder with virtual impunity. This puts our correctional officers at risk and all others who work and live in our prisons. They kill people in prison and have the ability to order assaults and murders as well. The late Baltimore Sun columnist Gregory Kane used to write about correctional officers who were on "inmate hit lists." Do we wish to give the "go-head" to such felons to assassinate and terrorize witnesses and others at will?

    6. The most irrelevant issue opposing the death penalty is the cost. First, it is impossible to assess the costs over time of keeping capital criminals alive and contrasting it to maintaining the possibility of execution, and second, it is as relatively unimportant as assessing the cost of drone strikes, a military strategy critical to stopping or slowing down terrorist groups bent on destroying the United States.

    7. The argument that no anti-crime strategy is worth the risk of the state's killing an innocent man is bogus. Moses Maimonides' dictum that "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death" ignores the fact that the freed guilty person may kill thousands more. Moreover, raising the standard of proof for conviction in capital cases eliminates even this invalid argument. With the advent of DNA analysis and other technological advances in crime fighting, the chances of executing an innocent person are near zero.

    There is no major ideological divide in Maryland concerning whether the death penalty ought to at least be available for use against mass murderers, murderers of children or murderers of law enforcement.

    Unfortunately, in Maryland, one day we will wake up to the news that a person has committed another unspeakable crime against his fellow man — maybe one similar to Newtown. What do we tell our fellow citizens when the death penalty is not even available as an option for the killing of 20 school children? What do we tell the rest of the country?

    The death penalty within a fair court system is not a matter of vengeance; it is a matter of justice. Justice must exist for the killer, his victim and our community. When there is justice, much is achieved.

    Don't take the threat of capital punishment out of the hands of prosecutors who wish to protect the citizens of Maryland.

    Restore the possibility of capital punishment in Maryland.

    Scott Shellenberger is Baltimore County state's attorney and author of the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment Minority Report; his email is statesattorney@baltimorecountymd.gov. Richard E. Vatz is professor at Towson University and author of "The Only Authentic Book of Persuasion" (Kendall Hunt, 2013); his email is rvatz@towson.edu.

    http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opi...106-story.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  8. #68
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Bill Introduced To Reinstate Death Penalty In Maryland

    There is new push to reinstate the death penalty in Maryland, but only under certain circumstances.

    Anne Arundel County Delegate Michael Malone is introducing House Bill 881.

    It would reinstate executions for convictions in the murders of a first responder, corrections officer, or a police officer.

    In the last seven years, at least 21 Maryland law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty.

    Maryland abolished the death penalty in 2013.

    If the bill becomes law, a new death chamber would need be be built and new protocols would have to be put into place.

    http://www.capitalbay.news/news/mary...-maryland.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  9. #69
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Maryland lawmaker proposes death penalty by heroin, fentanyl

    By Anna Giaritelli
    The Washington Examiner

    State Sen. Robert G. Cassilly, R-Md., said Monday the state should reinstate the death penalty and use a lethal injection comprised of heroin and fentanyl to execute prisoners who have committed certain violent crimes.

    The Harford County conservative said lethal injection should be used when punishing severe crimes, including murder that occurs during a sexual assault, murder during a hate crime, murder of at least two people in one incident, serial murders, and the murder of a law enforcement officer.

    The statement was first reported by WJZ and comes days after three granite business employees were fatally shot by a former coworker in Cassilly's state. Cassilly is urging his colleagues to reinstate the death penalty in light of the incident.

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ma...rticle/2638360

  10. #70
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Shoemaker proposes death penalty bill for cop-killers, mass murderers

    By Emily Chappell
    Carroll County Times

    Almost five years after former Gov. Martin O'Malley signed legislation repealing the state's death penalty, one Carroll County delegate is trying bring the option back in certain cases.

    Del. Haven Shoemaker, R-District 5, and Del. Jason Buckel, R-District 1B, are primary sponsors on House Bill 887, which would make the death penalty an option when someone is convicted of first-degree murder of a police officer, a correctional officer or a first responder, or in the case of a mass murder of three of more people. The death penalty was repealed in Maryland in 2013.

    Shoemaker said punishment is supposed to be a deterrent and rehabilitative, but those who kill law enforcement or are mass killers are “irredeemable.”

    “I think that they should be slipped the juice,” Shoemaker said. “There are numerous safeguards that are in place to make sure the wrong person is not executed.”

    With DNA, witnesses and technology, he added, there is barely a chance someone who is wrongfully convicted or accused would be sentenced to death.

    “Given the fact that we’re seeing basically police officers walk around with targets on their back, something has to be done,” Shoemaker said.

    Shoemaker said he knows of a lot of other lawmakers who want to sponsor the bill, and also said he has support from local leaders in Carroll. Both State’s Attorney Brian DeLeonardo and Sheriff Jim DeWees are in support.

    “They’ve indicated that they’d both be willing to come down and testify at the bill hearing,” he said.

    DeWees said “obviously I support it,” adding that he was never in support of repealing the death penalty in the first place. He said he believes the death penalty is a deterrent.

    If someone is “brazen enough” to take a law enforcement officer’s life, he said, and is convicted, the state should be able to seek the death penalty.

    “I appreciate Haven Shoemaker putting the bill in on behalf of law enforcement,” DeWees said.

    DeLeonardo said the death penalty is called for when someone has killed a law enforcement officer or a number of people. When someone kills a police officer, he said “it really is an attack on law and order.”

    There should be a clear line, he said, to save the most serious punishment for those most serious crimes. If someone is already serving a life sentence and kills a corrections officer, DeLeonardo said, the death penalty is appropriate.

    “Giving them another life without parole is doing nothing,” he said.

    The bill was introduced Feb. 5 and assigned to the House Judiciary Committee. Carroll County Dels. Susan Krebs and April Rose, R-District 5, as well as Del. Kathy Afzali, who represents Carroll and Frederick counties in District 4, have signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation.

    Wesley Eugene Baker was the last person executed in Maryland prior to the 2013 repeal of the death penalty. Baker was killed by lethal injection Dec. 5, 2005, after his 1992 conviction for killing a 49-year-old grandmother in the parking lot of Catonsville’s Westview Mall after a holdup in June 1991.

    http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/ne...208-story.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

Page 7 of 8 FirstFirst ... 5678 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •