18/03/03

MARYLAND/USA

Maryland Defeats Death Penalty Moratorium

 By JOHN BIEMER, 

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The state Senate Tuesday narrowly defeated a bill that would have halted executions until the fairness of Maryland's death penalty could be studied further.

Ten Democrats joined 14 Republicans in opposing the measure, which lost 24-23. Even if it had gone on to clear the House, Gov. Robert Ehrlich had pledged a veto.

When Ehrlich took office in January, he overturned a moratorium imposed by then-Gov. Parris Glendening last year. Glendening had stopped executions pending the results of a University of Maryland study, which concluded the system is marked with racial and jurisdictional disparities.

The bill would have halted executions until July 2005 to further examine and correct issues raised by the university study.

Sen. Sharon Grosfeld, who had argued vigorously for the moratorium, said she believed too many senators voted against the bill because they saw it as a stepping stone toward a repeal of capital punishment.

"In fact, a death penalty moratorium bill should be supported by all death penalty proponents because it will, in the end, take away arguments that there are flaws in the current system," Grosfeld said.

Opponents had argued another moratorium would just delay punishment for murderers. "This is about justice for the families of the victims," said Sen. Nancy Jacobs.

Three people have been executed in Maryland since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978, but as many as seven death row inmates could face execution in the coming months.

18/03/03

Execution Moratorium Rejected

 By David Snyder

 The Maryland Senate narrowly rejected legislation yesterday that would have halted executions pending a more stringent review of the state's death penalty process.
  The moratorium proposal failed on a 24 to 23 vote, with a key "no" vote coming from Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Prince George's), who earlier had voted in favor of the legislation to help it reach a vote in the full Senate. Miller supports the death penalty but said he wanted to see the issue debated in the full Senate.

 Opponents of the moratorium have held that Maryland's system of court appeals provides sufficient avenues for correcting miscarriages of justice, and that Maryland residents have indicated that they want the death penalty. They contend that the moratorium proposal was a veiled attempt to ultimately abolish the death penalty in Maryland.

 "This is about justice," said Sen. Nancy Jacobs (R-Harford), who voted against the measure yesterday. "We have an absolute duty to represent the people of Maryland."

 Proponents of an execution moratorium, including the Legislative Black Caucus, Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. (D) and the Maryland Catholic Conference, pointed to a University of Maryland study released in January which found that prosecutors in Maryland are far more likely to seek execution for African Americans convicted of killing white victims than for anyone else. The study found the disparity existed particularly in Baltimore County, where the prosecutor has a policy of seeking the death penalty in all cases that meet predetermined guidelines.

 They said the study underscored problems that must be fixed before executions resume.

 "In order to have a civilized society, we have to have a criminal justice system that does not discriminate," said Sen. Sharon M. Grosfeld (D-Montgomery), one of the bill's sponsors. "We have the absolute duty to pass this legislation to ensure that our death penalty is  . . . doing what it's supposed to do."

 The moratorium would have lasted until July 2005.

 Miller joined nine other Democrats and 14 Republicans in voting against the bill; 23 Democratic senators voted for the bill's passage.

 Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) had said that he would veto the bill if it passed, so the bill's backers would have needed a two-thirds majority to override a veto and make the bill a reality.

 Maryland became an important battleground in the national death penalty debate last year when it became one of two states to have a moratorium. The other is Illinois, where then-Gov. George Ryan (R) commuted the sentences of almost all of the state's 167 death-row inmates to life without parole before leaving office.

 Former Maryland  governor Parris N. Glendening, a Democrat, imposed a moratorium last year, but Ehrlich, a death-penalty supporter, effectively lifted it.

 Three people have been executed in Maryland since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978. As many as seven men on death row could face execution in the coming months.

 Another bill that could have some bearing on the way Maryland administers the death penalty, a measure that seeks to raise the standard of proof prosecutors must meet during the sentencing phase of a capital punishment case, could come up for a vote in the Senate today.

 Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery), the measure's lead sponsor, said, "If you're going to sentence somebody to death, you need to be absolutely sure."