Maryland annuncia moratoria Maryland Declares Death Penalty Moratorium
			The Toronto star

PENA DI MORTE: MARYLAND ANNUNCIA MORATORIA

WASHINGTON, 9 MAG - Il governatore del Maryland Parris Glendening ha annunciato oggi una moratoria sulle esecuzioni nello Stato finche' non sara' stato completato uno studio per accertare che non vi sia stata discriminazione razziale nell'uso della pena capitale. (ANSA).

Nei bracci della morte delle carceri del Maryland si trovano tredici detenuti: nove di questi

sono neri.

   L'esecuzione di Wesley Eugene Baker era in programma la prossima settimana. E' stata sospesa, come lo saranno tutte le successive finche' un ricercatore dell'Universita' del Maryland non avra' completato uno studio sulla equita' razziale delle sentenze di morte nello stato.

   Lo studio dovrebbe essere completato entro settembre. Fino ad allora la moratoria restera' in vigore in Maryland.

   Nel 2000 il governatore dell'Illinois George Ryan e' stato il primo a decretare una moratoria sulla pena di morte nel suo stato per esaminare metodi di riforma giudiziaria che possono

ridurre la possibilita' di sentenze di morte per detenuti innocenti. 

09-MAG-02 18:23

MARYLAND DICHIARA MORATORIA MA IN ALABAMA DOMANI UNA DONNA MORIRA' SU SEDIA ELETTRICA

 WASHINGTON, 9 MAG - Il Maryland e' diventato oggi il secondo Stato americano a dichiarare una moratoria sulla pena di morte. Un'analoga decisione era stata annunciata nel 2000 dall' Illinois.

   Il governatore del Maryland Parris Glendening ha spiegato di aver deciso la moratoria per i dubbi esistenti ''nel nostro Stato e nel resto del paese su una applicazione imparziale della

pena di morte''.

   La moratoria restera' in vigore finche' non sara' stato completato uno studio di uno specialista dell'Universita' del Maryland (che dovrebbe essere pronto a settembre) sulla equita' di applicazione delle condanne capitali, soprattutto sotto il profilo della discriminazione razziale.

   Nei bracci della morte del Maryland sono in attesa 13 condannati: nove sono di colore.

   La decisione del governatore ha sospeso l'esecuzione del nero Wesley Eugene Baker, in programma la prossima settimana.

   Glendening ha detto che nel Maryland non vi saranno esecuzioni finche' la moratoria restera' in vigore.

   Il governatore ha previsto che la moratoria possa restare in vigore almeno un anno, finche' il Congresso avra' avuto il tempo di studiare e discutere il rapporto dell'Universita'.

   Glendening ha detto di essere favorevole alla pena di morte, specie per i crimini piu' atroci, ma che ''e' imperativo per tutti avere la certezza che l'iter giudiziario che precede le condanne capitali sia equo ed imparziale''.

   Il governatore, che sta per completare due mandati, non puo' ripresentarsi una terza volta ed a novembre sara' nominato il suo successore. La sua vice Kathleen Kennedy Townsend e' in lizza per la poltrona di Glendening.

   Intanto in Alabama sara' messa a morte sulla sedia elettrica, nei primi minuti di domani, Lynda Lyon Block, 53 anni, accusata di aver ucciso un poliziotto nel 1993.

   Sara' la prima donna a morire per mano del boia in Alabama dal 1957, se non vi sara' un rinvio all'ultimo momento della esecuzione. Sara' inoltre la nona donna ad essere messa a morte negli Stati Uniti da quando nel 1976 sono riprese le esecuzioni

nel paese.

   Lynda Block sara' anche l'ultima persona a morire sulla sedia elettrica in Alabama: dal primo luglio lo stato adottera' il metodo della iniezione.

   Al momento, oltre 3.700 persone sono rinchiuse nei bracci della morte dei 38 Stati Usa che continuano ad effettuare esecuzioni. 

Il sistema giudiziario � razzista?

MARYLAND (CNN) -- Il governatore del Maryland, Parris Glendening, ha imposto una moratoria sulla pena di morte finch� non sar� completato uno studio che determiner� se le condanne a morte sono imposte in questo stato in base a criteri razziali. 

Dei 13 detenuti che si trovano attualmente nei bracci della morte delle prigioni del Maryland, nove sono neri. 

Tra questi, Wesley Eugene Baker, la cui esecuzione programmata per la prossima settimana � stata per il momento sospesa. 

E' fondamentale, ha detto Glendening, che i cittadini abbiano piena fiducia nel processo legale riguardante la pena di morte e che questo sia giusti e imparziali. Il governatore ha spiegato che la ricerca, cominciata nel 2000 e condotta dall'Universit� del Maryland, sar� completata alla fine di quest'anno. 

Nel 2000 il governatore dell'Illinois, George Ryan, era stato il primo a decretare una moratoria sulla pena di morte nel suo stato per esaminare metodi di riforma giudiziaria che possono ridurre la possibilit� di sentenze di morte per detenuti innocenti.

Maryland Declares Death Penalty Moratorium

May 9, 2002

By Bryan Sears

 ANNAPOLIS, Md.  - Maryland on Thursday became the second U.S. state to declare a moratorium on executions, citing "reasonable questions" about the integrity of capital punishment within its own boundaries and across the nation.

 Gov. Parris Glendening announced he would stay all executions until the University of Maryland completes an intensive study of 6,000 homicide cases to determine whether the state system for imposing the death penalty is fraught with racial and geographic bias.

 "Reasonable questions have been raised in Maryland and across the country about the application of the death penalty," said Glendening, noting that recent studies have produced evidence pointing to racial bias in capital murder cases in largely white and suburban Baltimore County.

 "There is a logical inconsistency to say we're reviewing the fairness and justice of the death penalty process, and in the meantime, we're going to execute," he told a news conference.

 The study, initiated in 2000 at the urging of black state legislators, is due to be completed in September.

 Maryland has executed three inmates since the state's death penalty was reinstated in 1978. The latest was in 1998. State officials said the governor's action on Thursday prevented as many as five death-row inmates from facing execution by lethal injection over the next four months.

 Nine of Maryland's 13 death-row inmates are black, and all but one of those were convicted of murdering whites in predominantly white communities. One black inmate, Wesley Eugene Baker, was due to die next week for murdering a woman in front of her grandchildren during a shopping mall robbery in 1991.

 EXECUTION OPPONENTS HAIL MOVE

 Death-penalty opponents hailed the Maryland moratorium as an important victory, saying it should be followed by sweeping reforms like those recently proposed in Illinois where Republican Gov. George Ryan imposed the first state moratorium in January 2000 after several death-row inmates were found to be innocent.

 According to Amnesty International, 100 people have been exonerated from death row in the United States since 1973.

 "The administration of the death penalty is a deeply troubled government program and governors who look at these problems, and who are honest see, that they have to do something," said George Kendall, staff attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

 "Maryland has a real problem with race," he added.

 Criminal justice officials in the United States have been criticized by death-penalty opponents around the world for maintaining capital punishment at both the state and federal levels.

 Thirty-eight states have death penalty laws on their books. Last year, there were 3,711 prisoners on death row in the United States, according to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Since 1976, 773 people have been executed.

 Amnesty International says the United States is one of 84 nations where the death penalty is exercised, compared with 111 in which it has been abolished in some form. Western Europe has abolished the practice and Russia has commuted the sentences of all of its death-row inmates to life in prison, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

 In the United States, recent opinion polls have shown growing support for life-without-parole as an alternative to death.

 "We are now at a point in the debate on capital punishment in America where the country recognizes that if it were to have capital punishment, then you have to be serious about reforms," said law expert Barry Scheck, co-director of the New York-based Innocence Project, which has used post-conviction DNA testing to overturn 60 criminal cases in recent years.

 "This is not just a Maryland issue," said Democratic U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, author of a bill to impose a moratorium on federal executions. "Problems of troubling racial disparities and the risk of executing the innocent plague the administration of the death penalty nationwide."

 LEGISLATURE DEFEATED MORATORIUM

 Glendening, a two-term Democratic governor who must leave office in January because of term limits, commuted the sentence of a death-row inmate to life two years ago because he doubted the strength of the evidence.

 The Maryland Legislature also debated moratorium legislation a year ago. But the measure was defeated.

 Glendening's moratorium declaration on Thursday came a day after Baker formally petitioned the governor's office for clemency. The 44-year-old inmate had his final appeal denied by the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) earlier this week.

 Baker's lawyers had asked the governor either to commute his death sentence to life without parole, or to delay his execution until after the release of the University of Maryland study. They argued that Baker had a troubled childhood after being born to a 13-year-old girl whose boyfriend was a violent ex-convict and heroin user.

Maryland's Gov. Glendening issues death penalty moratorium until study is completed

May 9, 2002

By TOM STUCKEY

 ANNAPOLIS, Maryland - Gov. Parris Glendening imposed a moratorium Thursday on executions in Maryland until the state completes a study of whether there is racial bias in the use of the death penalty.

 Only one other state that has capital punishment, Illinois, has imposed a similar moratorium.

 Glendening, a Democrat who is barred from seeking a third term this November, issued a stay on the execution of Wesley Eugene Baker and said he would stay any other executions that come before him. Baker, 44, had been scheduled to die by injection sometime next week.

 In announcing his decision, the governor repeated his support for the death penalty in especially heinous crimes, but said that "reasonable questions have been raised in Maryland and across the country about the application of the death penalty."

 "It is imperative that I, as well as our citizens, have complete confidence that the legal process involved in capital cases is fair and impartial," the governor said.

 Glendening had been under pressure to halt executions until he receives a study that is due to be completed in September by a researcher at the University of Maryland.

 Baker is one of 13 men awaiting execution in Maryland, and critics say the death penalty is more likely to be imposed if the defendants are black and the victims are white. Nine of the 13, including Baker, are black, and many of the victims were white, including the woman Baker was convicted of killing.

 Glendening said he would not lift the moratorium until the study is completed and reviewed by the state legislature. He said he expects the moratorium will remain in place for about a year, unless the next governor resumes executions after taking office in January.

 Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who also supports the death penalty in limited cases, had asked Glendening last week to impose the moratorium. She recently announced she is running to succeed him.

 Illinois Gov. George Ryan declared the U.S.'s first moratorium in 2000, citing the release of 13 death-row inmates whose convictions were flawed. Last month, a commission appointed by Ryan recommended reforms to reduce the possibility of wrongful convictions, including cutting the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty and videotaping police interrogations.

 About 3,700 people are on death row for crimes committed in the 38 states that allow the death penalty.

 Since the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) reinstated the death penalty 25 years ago, more than 770 inmates have been put to death in the United States by the federal government and authorities in 32 states.

 Baker was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the 1991 murder of Jane Tyson, 49, who was shot in the parking lot of a Baltimore County shopping center, where she had taken her 4-year-old granddaughter and 6-year-old grandson shopping for tennis shoes.

 Baker does not deny taking part in an attempted robbery when Tyson was killed, but his attorneys say there is not enough evidence to show he fired the gun. Gregory Lawrence, a co-defendant, was sentenced to life in prison.

 Baker's lawyer, Gary Christopher, had filed two petitions with Glendening on Tuesday, one asking that Baker's sentence be reduced to life in prison and one asking for a stay while the university study is completed.

 Glendening has allowed two men to die by lethal injection, but commuted the sentence of a third, Eugene Colvin-el, to life without parole a week before his scheduled execution two years ago. Glendening said then that he was not absolutely certain that Colvin-el was guilty of the murder for which he was sentenced to death.

9 mai 2002, 

Peine de mort: le gouverneur du Maryland d�cr�te un moratoire sur les ex�cutions

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland - Le gouverneur Parris Glendening a d�cr�t� jeudi un moratoire sur les ex�cutions dans le Maryland le temps que cet Etat am�ricain ach�ve une �tude sur la peine capitale.

 Ce travail doit d�terminer si les pr�jug�s raciaux influent sur le recours � la peine de mort.

 Le gouverneur du Maryland a accord� un sursis � Wesley Eugene Baker, qui devait �tre ex�cut� par injection l�tale la semaine prochaine. Il a indiqu� qu'il ferait de m�me pour toutes les autres ex�cutions qu'il serait amen� � examiner.

 Wesley Eugene Baker figure parmi les 13 hommes, dont neuf noirs, d�tenus dans les couloirs de la mort au Maryland. 

Glendening Declares Moratorium on Executions

By Lori Montgomery

Thursday, May 9, 2002

 Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening today declared a moratorium on executions, sparing the life of a Baltimore-area killer and making Maryland the second state after Illinois to suspend the death penalty because of doubts about its fairness.

 Glendening (D) announced his decision after reviewing a clemency request by Wesley Eugene Baker, 44, who had been scheduled to die next week for murdering a woman in front of her grandchildren during a purse-snatching in 1991.

 Glendening said he did not come to a conclusion about the soundness of Baker's conviction. But he said he was troubled that Baker is the first of five men � four of them black � who could face execution before the end of Glendening's term as governor.

 Glendening said he decided that those executions should not proceed until a study examining the state's system of capital punishment for evidence of racial bias is complete.

 "In effect, I am issuing a moratorium until the study has been released and reviewed by the governor, reviewed by the public and reviewed by the legislature," he said.

 Glendening added that he anticipated the moratorium would last for about one year.

 "This is a difficult decision. My heart goes out to the families of the victims of these horrible crimes," Glendening said. "I must, however, be absolutely certain not only of the guilt of the criminals but of the fairness and impartiality of the process."

 The decision marks a change of heart for Glendening, who in the past rejected calls for a moratorium. At that time, the governor said he saw no need to issue a blanket stay because he personally reviewed the case of each death row inmate for evidence of racial bias before allowing execution to proceed.

 In recent months, however, Glendening said questions about the fairness of the death penalty have mounted across the nation. Last month, an Illinois commission recommended sweeping reform of capital punishment in Illinois. And in Arizona, the 100th person in the nation was freed from death row after being exonerated by DNA evidence.

 In Maryland, nine of 13 men on death row come from a single jurisdiction: Baltimore County. Seventy percent of the men are black, one of the highest proportions on any death row. And all but one of the men were condemned for killing white victims, although 80 percent of the state's murder victims are black.

 With the study of racial bias due in September � and with Baker's execution looming � African-American leaders, Catholic church officials and other death-penalty opponents stepped up their calls on Glendening to declare a moratorium.

 Glendening said he ultimately decided it would be "logically inconsistent" to put as many as five men to death while the study is underway.

 Glendening said he still believes strongly in the right of society to impose the "ultimate sanction" on crimes that "shock the conscience."

 But, he said, "a maximum of one more year delay to make absolutely certain for me, or any future governor, that the process is fair is a reasonable thing to do."

For Convicted Killer, A Chance at Life

By Peter Carlson

Friday, May 10, 2002

Last week, guards took convicted killer Wesley Eugene Baker out of his cell in Maryland's supermax prison in Baltimore and escorted him to an isolation area to await his execution, scheduled for next week.

 Last night -- after Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening declared a moratorium on executions in the state -- the guards moved Baker, 44, back to his old cell. Now he doesn't have to worry about being killed by lethal injection -- at least not until next year, after legislators review a study on racial bias in murder convictions. Four of the five men awaiting execution in the next few months are blacks convicted of murdering whites.

 "He was very moved by what the governor did today," says Baker's lawyer, Gary Christopher, who visited his client after Glendening's announcement. "He feels very humbled by what happened. He understands the ramifications of this for the future of the death penalty in Maryland, and that sort of overwhelms him."

 Baker's road to death row began in the parking lot of Westview Mall outside Baltimore on June 6, 1991.

 At 8:30 that evening, Jane Tyson was climbing into the driver's seat of her Buick, after buying shoes for her grandchildren -- Adam Sulewski, 6, and Carly Sulewski, 4 -- when a man ran up to her, shot her in the head and ran off with her purse, leaving her lying on the pavement, bleeding from the head and mouth.

 The shooter and another man fled in a blue Chevy Blazer. When police caught up with the Blazer a few minutes later, Baker bailed out of the passenger seat and ran. After police nabbed him, they discovered traces of Tyson's blood on his shoe, sock and pants.

 He was charged with murder. The driver of the Blazer, Gregory Lawrence, was charged as an accomplice.

 The two men were tried separately. At his trial, Lawrence testified that Baker shot Tyson. He was convicted and sentenced to life. At his trial, Baker declined to testify. He was convicted and sentenced to death.

 For a decade, Baker has waited on death row as lawyers fought to save his life. Last month, after prison officials scheduled Baker's execution, his lawyers petitioned Glendening for clemency, arguing that doubt remains about whether Baker fired the shot that killed Tyson.

 Ann Brobst, who prosecuted Baker, says she has no doubt that Baker was the shooter. Tyson's "blood was on his sock and pants," she says. She does wonder why he shot the unarmed woman. "I don't know why he killed her," she says. "She was vulnerable. She was a very small woman, and she was with two very small children. I suspect it was because he wasn't masked, and he didn't want to leave a witness."

 In their clemency petition, Baker's lawyers argued that his crime was mitigated by a horrific childhood. He was born in 1958, the son of an unmarried 14-year-old Baltimore girl.

 "Prior to age five, Mr. Baker was abducted and sexually abused by two teenage girls," Christopher and another lawyer, William Purpura, wrote. "His stepfather physically abused Mrs. Baker and forced a young Wesley to watch him inject heroin intravenously. Mr. Baker's drug and alcohol abuse began at the age of ten and by age fourteen, he had graduated to intravenous heroin use. At age fifteen, he fathered a child with a 28-year-old intravenous heroin abuser . . . "

 "We don't offer that as an excuse, but as an explanation," says Christopher. "We start with the proposition that he'll be imprisoned for life."

 Glendening did not rule on Baker's clemency petition yesterday. Instead, he declared a moratorium on all executions until the state legislature can review a study, currently in the works, of possible racial bias in Maryland's system of capital punishment.

The legislature is not scheduled to meet until January. By then, Glendening will be out of office. His successor will have to decide Baker's fate.

 Yesterday, Christopher marveled at how calm Baker had been as he faced imminent execution. "I'm very proud of how he was managing to weather the process. I don't know anybody else who has ever been told, 'You will be dead within a week at the hands of the state.' He was supporting me as much as I was supporting him. He was helping his family to get through the process. It wasn't like he was whining or upset with what was coming his way."

 Baker's mother, Delores Williams, visited her son yesterday and then released a statement to the media: "I'm so appreciative of what everyone did. I'm grateful to Governor Glendening for staying my son's execution from the bottom of my heart."

Reached by phone, John Tyson, the husband of Baker's victim, declined to comment on Glendening's action. "I don't have anything to say," he whispered. Then he gently hung up the phone.

Maryland's governor issues death penalty moratorium

Maryland Gov. Glendening said he will not lift the moratorium on the death penalty until the state legislature reviews a study.

May 9, 2002 

   ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (CNN) -- Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening imposed a moratorium on executions Thursday until the state finishes a study on whether there is racial bias in the use of the death penalty.

 Glendening, a Democrat, said he envisions the stay remaining in place "until the study is reviewed and acted upon by the legislature, which I expect to take about one year."

 Glendening stopped the execution of Wesley Eugene Baker, who was scheduled to die by lethal injection some time next week, and said he would stay any other executions that come before him. Baker was convicted of a 1991 murder.

 Nine of the 13 people on death row in Maryland are African-American, including Baker. During his tenure, Glendening allowed the state to go forward with two executions, but he commuted a third. The Baker case was the fourth such case to come before him.

"It is imperative that I, as well as our citizens, have complete confidence that the legal process involved in capital cases is fair and impartial," Glendening said.

 "An extensive two-year study by the University of Maryland examining the effects of racial and jurisdictional factors on the imposition of the death penalty is nearing completion."

 The university study was commissioned in the spring of 2000 and is expected to be completed later this year.

 "Given that the study will be released soon, and the critical need to be absolutely sure of the integrity of the process, I am issuing a stay for this case, and I will stay any others that come before me, pending completion of the study," the governor said.

 Glendening has said the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime, but believes that there are some crimes so vicious that society has the right to impose the harshest of all punishments, said Karen White, the governor's spokeswoman.

 Glendening said the decision to halt executions was a "difficult" one that was not "based on the specifics of these cases."

 "While I have not conducted a full and comprehensive review of each case, I do know that the crimes for which the death row inmates were convicted and sentenced were vicious. They are precisely the type of terrible murders that call for the ultimate sanction," he said.

 Glendening, whose second and final term of office ends in January, said the next governor "will have the authority to adjust the timetable" on the moratorium.

 Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a Democratic candidate for governor, called for a death penalty moratorium last week and met with Glendening on the issue, although she did not discuss Baker's case or other individual cases, according to a Townsend campaign spokeswoman.

 "Kathleen Kennedy Townsend supports the death penalty but believes if you are going to impose the death penalty you must be sure it is as fair as possible," the spokeswoman said.

 "We support this moratorium because it gives us an opportunity to clarify that we are being as fair and just as we can be and we must be."

 Illinois Gov. George Ryan declared the nation's first moratorium in 2000. The Associated Press reported that last month, a commission appointed by Ryan recommended 85 reforms to reduce the possibility of wrongful convictions. Some of the reforms included cutting the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty and videotaping police interrogations.

US governor freezes executions

Lethal injection is the most common method of execution

The governor of Maryland in the United States has imposed a moratorium on the death penalty until a report into whether there is racial bias in executions is completed.

Thursday, 9 May, 2002,

Death penalty USA 

38 states have the death penalty

More then 3,700 inmates are on death row

Execution can be by hanging, electrocution, gassing, firing squad or lethal injection

Four states still use the electric chair 

 The governor, Parris Glendening, issued a stay on the execution of Wesley Baker, an African American, and all other pending executions in the state citing "reasonable questions" about the integrity of capital punishment in the state and across the country.

 Baker is one of 13 men - nine of them black - awaiting execution in Maryland.

The study - financed with the support of legislature - is being carried out by a researcher at the University of Maryland, and is due to be completed in autumn next year.

Under pressure

Mr Glendening - a supporter of death penalty for especially heinous crimes - requested the study two years ago, after apparently studying Maryland's statistics of inmates on a death row.

Execution factfile 

1999 - 97 executions

1951 - 105 executions

95 people released from death row since 1973

66% of Americans support the death penalty

80% take place in southern states 

 Opponents of the death penalty argue that executions are imposed on racial minorities in disproportionately high numbers.

 Stephanie Gibson, member of the Maryland Coalition Against State Executions says that the statistics show that the majority of those on death row have killed a white person, even though an overwhelming 80% of the state's homicide victims are coloured people.

 Mr Glendening said he would not lift the moratorium until the study is reviewed by the state legislature, which he expected would be completed in about a year's time.

 Parole demands

 Wesley Baker, 44, was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the murder of Jane Tyson, who was shot in a Baltimore County shopping centre in 1991.

 Baker does not deny being present when the victim was killed, but his attorneys say there is not enough evidence to show he fired the gun.

 They demand that the governor either to commute his death sentence to life without parole, or to delay his execution until after the release of the study.

 Several hundred people have been put to death in the US by state and federal authorities since the country's Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in the late 1970's.

 Illinois is the only other US state which has imposed a moratorium on death penalty. 

The Toronto star

Maryland suspends executions

Governor will wait for study of racial bias in death penalty

 ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Following the example set by Illinois two years ago, Gov. Parris Glendening on Thursday suspended all executions in Maryland while a study is done on whether the death penalty is meted out in a racially discriminatory way.

Glendening, a Democrat who is barred from seeking a third term this fall, blocked next week's lethal injection of 44-year-old Wesley Baker and said he would stay any other executions that come before him in his eight months left in office.

 The governor repeated his support for the death penalty for especially heinous crimes, but said "reasonable questions have been raised in Maryland and across the country about the application of the death penalty.''

 "It is imperative that I, as well as our citizens, have complete confidence that the legal process involved in capital cases is fair and impartial," he said.

 Illinois is the only other death penalty state to impose a moratorium on executions.

 The study is expected to be completed in September and will then be reviewed by state lawmakers. Glendening said he expects the moratorium to remain in place for about a year. However, the next governor is free to resume executions upon taking office in January.

 Nine of the 13 men on Maryland's death row are black and many of the victims were white. Glendening also noted that nine of the men on death row were convicted in suburban Baltimore County, and said: "Use of the death penalty ought not to be a lottery of geography.''

 The governor's office said five men, including Baker, could have faced execution before Glendening's term ends.

 Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who is running for governor and supports the death penalty in some cases, had asked Glendening to impose the moratorium. The governor said Townsend's request was not a significant factor in his decision.

 About 3,700 people are on death row for crimes committed in the 38 states with the death penalty. Critics contend the death penalty is more likely to be imposed if the defendant is black and the victim white.

 Baker, who is black, was convicted of killing a 49-year-old white grandmother at a shopping center in 1991. Baker has not denied taking part in the attempted robbery, but his lawyers say there is not enough evidence to show he fired the gun. A co-defendant was sentenced to life in prison.

 In his 71/2 years in office, Glendening has allowed the executions of two men and commuted the sentence of a third, two years ago, saying he was not absolutely certain of the man's guilt.

 The governor commissioned the death penalty study two years ago because of concerns that blacks were unfairly being singled out for death sentences.

 The study is being done by Ray Paternoster, a criminologist at the University of Maryland. He and seven doctoral students are reviewing about 6,000 criminal cases dating to 1978 where prosecutors could have sought the death penalty. Maryland reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

 In a study of South Carolina, Paternoster concluded that a key factor in death sentences there was the race of the victim.

 In Maryland, Paternoster said he hopes to determine what motivates prosecutors to pursue death sentences and juries to impose them. He declined to comment on the moratorium.

 Illinois Gov. George Ryan declared the nation's first moratorium on the death penalty in 2000, citing the release of 13 death row inmates who were found to have been unfairly convicted.

 Last month, a commission appointed by Ryan recommended reforms to reduce the possibility of wrongful convictions, including cutting the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty and videotaping police interrogations.

 Montgomery County, Md., prosecutor Doug Gansler, who rarely presses for a death sentence, predicted the Maryland study will not find significant racial bias and said the death penalty should remain the law since life without parole is also an option for prosecutors.

 "Either way, the convicted murderer is coming out of prison in a box," Gansler said.