By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States — Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is expected to sign a bill next month that would end the use of the death penalty.

On Friday, the state’s House of Delegates voted 82-to-56 to repeal capital punishment after the state’s Senate voted 27-to-20 last week for a repeal.  Now the bill only needs O’Malley’s signature, which his aides say should come when the legislature session ends in April.

If signed, the law would take effect on October 1, and all current inmates on death row would have their sentences replaced by life terms without parole.  Maryland would become the eighteenth state in the country to abolish the death penalty, marking an end to the state’s 375-year history of capital punishment.

“With [the] vote to repeal the death penalty in Maryland, the General Assembly is eliminating a policy that is proven not to work,” O’Malley said during a press conference after the legislative approval.  The governor pushed the effort to repeal, making it one of his top goals for this year’s legislative session.

Maryland has used the death penalty only five times since it was reinstated during the 1970s, the last time happening in 2005.  In 2006, Maryland’s Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ruled that a legislative committee had not properly approved the state’s lethal injection protocols, effectively putting capital punishment on hold.

Supporters of the repeal applauded state lawmakers for eliminating a measure they called costly and counterproductive.  Delegate Heather Mizeur said the decision about who lives or dies, even the worst criminal offenders, is not one anybody should make.

“By willfully taking a human life, the state enacts the worst of human impulses,” she said.

“Maryland’s rejection of the death penalty adds to the national momentum against this cruel and increasing unusual punishment,” said Antonia Ginatta, an advocacy director with the nonprofit Human Rights Watch.

Opponents, however, criticized the legislature and called on O’Malley to not sign the bill.  They said the law would put officers’ safety in jeopardy.  Most significantly, though, opponents said capital punishment was a necessary measure in criminal justice.

“The death penalty is not a deterrent; it is justice,” said Delegate C. T. Wilson, a former prosecutor and U.S. Army veteran.

Even if O’Malley signs the bill into law, the death penalty might not be entirely forgotten yet.  According to the Baltimore Sun, those who support the death penalty could petition it to be on the 2014 ballot, leaving the issue up to voters.  If they succeed, the law would be put on hold pending the results of the election.

State Sen. Thomas Miller, the Senate President, predicted that kind of challenge happening.  Even though no group has publicly supported the idea yet, the Sun reported that recent polls indicate a narrow majority of voters still supports the death penalty.

For further information, please see:

The Baltimore Sun — House Votes to Repeal Death Penalty — 15 March 2013

The Capital Gazette — Maryland General Assembly Votes to Abolish the Death Penalty — 15 March 2013

Human Rights Watch — US: Maryland Expected to Abolish Death Penalty — 15 March 2013

The Washington Post — Md. Assembly Votes to Repeal Death Penalty — 15 March 2013