Legal Commentary

Maryland Commission Recommends Death Penalty Ban

By TChris

This is the verdict of a Maryland commission that examined the state's death penalty:

capital punishment doesn't deter crime and is affected by racial and jurisdictional disparities. ...

The panel found death penalty cases cost more and that there is "a real possibility" a mistake could cause an innocent person to be executed.

Gov. Martin O'Malley hopes the commission's work will convince the legislature to reexamine Maryland's need for capital punishment.

"I think the proper course of conduct now is for us to take a fresh look at the death penalty, ask ourselves why we need to continue to have the death penalty on the books," O'Malley told reporters today. "It is ineffective. It does not work."

Maryland has executed five inmates since 1978 and has five men currently on death row.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on November 15, 2008 (boomark / email).