ANNAPOLIS – Anti-death penalty legislation failed in the General Assembly session that ended Monday, but both sides of the issue vow that the fight is far from over.
Death penalty foes tried to impose a moratorium on capital punishment, as well as to repeal it, and were unsuccessful. But several factors make them want to keep trying to reform the state’s ultimate punishment.
“We take this as a learning opportunity and will make sure that we get busy to have all of pieces and members in line so that we can change some laws,” said Kemry Hughes, chairman of the Maryland Justice Coalition. “I don’t think that we weren’t successful . . . at least we were able to help with the discussion.”
In the interim, Amnesty International in Maryland will switch its focus to Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who is heading a commission created to review individual death row cases.
“We hoped that we could have the moratorium,” said Cathy D. Knepper, Amnesty’s state death penalty abolition coordinator. “The problem is systemic and looking at it case by case does not do anything.”
Hughes couldn’t agree more.
“We definitely need a change in the criminal justice system,” he said. “However, I don’t support further studies. We’ve had enough studies that demonstrate something is clearly wrong.”
Steele’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Death penalty opponents were energized this year by the January release of a University of Maryland study that revealed racial and geographical bias in the state’s application of the sanction.
When the race of both the victim and offender are examined together, blacks who kill whites are more likely to receive a death sentence versus whites who kill whites, the study showed. The university study was ordered in 1996 after a review revealed a high number of blacks sentenced to death and a low number of prisoners whose victims were black sentenced to death.
The study also found disparity in the way prosecutors in different jurisdictions seek the death penalty. In particular, Baltimore County seeks the death penalty more than Baltimore City.
Death penalty supporters found a strong advocate in new Gov. Robert Ehrlich, who promises to allow executions, but, he said, he is wary of a review board.
“Commissions can be useful and they can be less than useful,” Ehrlich said. “I don’t need a commission or a study to tell me that venue is subjective.”
The issue became so charged this session that Attorney General J. Joseph Curran made a controversial plea to Ehrlich, Steele and members of the General Assembly to abolish the death penalty because the risk of executing the innocent is too great, and the penalty’s application is plagued with bias.
“The real reason I took that position is that, sadly, there is a possibility of a mistake, and that is frightening,” Curran said. “I would have hoped that there was a continuation of the moratorium so that there could have been a study of the results.”
“Another one of the reasons I did speak out was that there could be seven executions within three months,” he said. “And, it’s frightening that there could be a mistake in a capital case.”
Ehrlich’s predecessor, Gov. Parris Glendening, had refused to allow executions in the state since 1998 while the study was completed. That’s led to a backlog of inmates on death row.
Steven Oken, convicted in 1991 for the 1987 murder of Dawn Marie Garvin, then a newlywed from White Marsh, could be the first Maryland inmate to be put to death since 1998.
Oken’s death warrant was issued in January — effectively ending Glendening’s de facto moratorium — but was stayed pending appeals the next month. An appeal based on the university’s study results was denied by the Court of Appeals in March. A second appeal based on Supreme Court cases will be heard in May.
It’s an ongoing battle, said Fred Romano, brother of the slain Garvin. He said he is content with the dismissal of a moratorium and the repeal.
“Next year they’ll be back with the same stuff and I’ll be ready for that battle next year,” said Romano, founder of the Maryland Coalition for State Executions. “I really want to make an explosion this year. I want to talk to Sen. Nancy Jacobs (R-Harford). I want to work on the appeals process.”
“I’m not letting up my fight,” he said. “I’m looking for justice, not closure. I can’t have closure because Dawn will never come back.”
The Senate thwarted the moratorium 24-23 in March, with Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert, delivering the deciding vote. The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee defeated the death penalty repeal.