[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MARYLAND

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 14


MARYLAND:

Maryland Becomes Latest State to Seek End to Death Penalty


The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment this week released its final
report, calling for an end to capital punishment and making Maryland the
latest state in the nation to move toward abolishing the death penalty.

"After a thorough review of this information, the Commission recommends
that capital punishment be abolished in Maryland," the report reads.

The commission's chairman, former U.S. Attorney General Benjamin
Civiletti, said during a press conference held for the report's release,
"There is no good and sufficient reason to have the death penalty and
plenty of reasons against it."

Later, in an exclusive interview with WEAA/AFRO First Edition radio talk
show, Civiletti said, The death penalty is a difficult and complex issue
regardless of who considers it, whether it is our court of appeals or the
Supreme Court."

In reaching its conclusion, the commission's report cited among its
primary concerns the existence of racial and jurisdictional disparities in
the state's capital sentencing system.

"Where you have a Black accused and a White victim, you have almost three
times the likelihood of the death penalty being part of the process," said
Civiletti, who was appointed the commissions chairman by Gov. Martin
O'Malley, Maryland Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller Jr. and
Maryland Speaker of the House Michael Busch.

Civiletti added that administering the ultimate penalty in a system
plagued by disparities is inherently perilous.

"There is no good and sufficient reason to have the death penalty and
plenty of reasons against it."

"The death penalty is a very difficult penalty to administer error-free
and as a result there is always the real possibility of having an innocent
winding up on death row. The real danger (of the death penalty) couldnt be
better epitomized than by Kirk Bloodsworth," he said.

Bloodsworth, a Maryland resident and the 1st person sentenced to death row
to be exonerated by DNA evidence, was also a member of the commission that
Civiletti chaired.

"As a former death row inmate, it's hard to imagine how truly honored I am
today," Bloodsworth said during the press conference.

In 1984, Bloodsworth was accused of the rape and murder of a nine-year-old
girl and sentenced to death on March 8, 1985. The ruling was appealed a
year later and he received a new trial but was found guilty a second time
and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.

Finally, on June 28, 1993, Bloodsworth was released from prison after DNA
evidence cleared him of the crime.

"There's a real possibility to execute an innocent person and I know that
for myself," he said. The commission voted 13-9 to abolish the death
penalty, with one abstention. Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott
Shellenberger voiced the minority opinion.

"The close vote on the commission's findings regarding the death penalty
in Maryland demonstrates that this is an issue upon which reasonable minds
can differ," Shellenberger said in a statement.

"It is my strong belief that the death penalty should remain a sentencing
option for those prosecutors who wish to seek it."

During the press conference, Shellenberger specifically balked at some of
the commission's findings. "There was absolutely no evidence of racial
discrimination by any official in the state," he said.

"There was absolutely no evidence the 5 who've been executed or the 5 on
death row are innocentno evidence."

However, there are many in the Maryland General Assembly who hope the
commission's recommendation will give opponents of capital punishment
during the upcoming legislative session the leverage to make Maryland the
16th state (including the District of Columbia) with no death penalty.

"I believe the overwhelming weight of the report will be persuasive with
our colleagues," said state Del. Sandy Rosenberg, who represents the 41st
legislative district in Baltimore City, and who served as one of the
commissioners.

5 men have been put to death by lethal injection in Maryland since the
state resumed capital punishment in 1978 following a U.S. Supreme Court
ruling in 1976.

The last was Wesley Eugene Baker, an African American who was executed
Dec. 4, 2005, for the murder of Jane Tyson, 49, a White teacher's aide in
June 1991 at Westview Mall.

Bloodsworth, who was officially pardoned in December 1993 by then-Gov.
William Donald Schaefer, hopes Baker was the last person executed in the
state of Maryland.

"There is nothing more safe or strong in an emergency of life as the
simple truth," said Bloodsworth, quoting Charles Dickens.

Bloodsworth added, "And here it is."

(source: Afro American National News)