Last week Maryland's Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee voted 6-5 to pass legislation repealing the death penalty. This committee had long been the biggest obstacle to repeal.
Next up to vote is the Senate - the next biggest barrier to repeal. They are likely to begin their floor debate and subsequent vote as early as this Friday.
Maryland has tried for ten years to create a death penalty system that works. They are finally throwing up their hands and saying there's only one solution: full repeal.
If you want to see Maryland get rid of the failed, broken death penalty system, now is the time to act.
If you live in Maryland, call your State Senators or email your State Senators and Delegates to ask them to say YES to repealing the death penalty.
If you live anywhere else, the best way you can help is to email Governor Martin O'Malley, the lead sponsor of the repeal legislation. Thank O'Malley for his leadership and ask him to use his sway to influence the Senate to say YES to repealing the death penalty.
Maryland has tried harder than most states to fix the flaws in the death penalty. They put a moratorium on executions in 2002, held a six-month study commission with over 80 witnesses in 2008, and enacted sweeping reforms in 2009 that made Maryland's death penalty one of the most restrictive in the nation.
The new procedures were supposed to make the death penalty accurate. But a 2012 report by former prosecutors and other legal experts found that the reforms made Maryland’s death penalty longer, more costly, more arbitrary, more complex, and subject to increased litigation, all while failing to guarantee that an innocent person wouldn't be executed, which were the reform’s intent.
The reforms also hurt the families of murder victims. The new procedures extended an already lengthy trial process, prolonging the agony for families struggling to
rebuild their lives.
Family members of murder victims have been some of the lead voices calling for death penalty repeal, saying that the death penalty fails to meet their needs or address their trauma.
Many victims' families from underserved communities of color, where most murders in Maryland happen, have talked about how their real needs - things like financial support, specialized grief counseling, help with funeral expenses, help navigating the legal system - were ignored while the death penalty showered resources and attention on a few cherry-picked cases.
Bonnita Spikes, whose husband was murdered, said said she couldn't to get her son help with his depression:
By passing the repeal bill this year we will have the resources needed to get murder victims’ families help. Continue to call your legislators ... Stand by us.
Some families talked about how the death penalty actually made their trauma worse. One woman, Megan Foley, who lost her father to murder and also experienced the execution of the people responsible, spoke at the hearing before the Senate Committee vote.
She said:
I often hear legislators who have not yet made up their minds about repeal say that they might like to reserve the right to execute killers if what those killers have done is particularly egregious...
Please hear me when I tell you from personal experience – and I’m also speaking to the other family members of victims who might be in this room, who may also want to know – please hear me when I tell you that execution of killers does not bring any of the things it’s advertised to bring. Having my father’s killers executed did not bring me a sense of closure, or a sense of justice, or a sense of peace. I did not feel that things had been made fair. In fact, the execution of those men made me feel far worse.
The committee vote turned on one particular State Senator, Robert Zirkin, who was originally opposed to repealing the death penalty. He
said:
“From an emotional standpoint, I want to kill these people myself,” said Zirkin. But he said he was heavily influenced by the many family members of murder victims who have spoken out for repeal and told him that the death penalty does not provide closure or meet their needs.
In the original legislation sponsored by Governor O'Malley, there was a provision to use some of the savings from ending the death penalty to improve services for families who’ve lost loved ones to murder.
That part of the bill was amended out in committee because of procedural concerns. So the Governor gave a written pledge to include this funding in his budget whether or not it remained in the death penalty repeal bill.
The Senate will be voting on repeal in just a few days time. It has a good chance.
A wide range of groups have come together to coordinate this repeal effort including the NAACP, which has devoted more resources to Maryland's repeal campaign than ever before, Maryland CASE in the repeal effort, including CASA MD, ColorofChange.org, the ACLU of Maryland, Progressive Maryland, Equality Maryland, the Ecumenical Leaders Group, Maryland Catholic Conference, the United Church of Christ, Equal Justice USA (where I work!), the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Witness to Innocence and more.
Together we can make Maryland the sixth state in six years to end the death penalty AND stand with Maryland's families of murder victims. Call or email your leaders in the legislature if you live in Maryland or contact Governor O'Malley if you live outside of Maryland. Tell these lawmakers to say YES to repeal and support Governor O'Malley with his pledge to increase aid to Maryland's murder victims' families.