Nov 20, 2008 9:40 pm US/Eastern
Minority Report Submitted On Md. Death Penalty
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) ―
A draft minority report supporting Maryland's death penalty law was submitted Thursday to a state panel that has recommended repealing capital punishment.
Scott Schellenberger, Baltimore County state's attorney who supports the death penalty, is the lead author of the 23-page report. Schellenberger said the fact that only five people have been executed in Maryland since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978 demonstrates capital punishment is used judiciously in the state.
He also pointed out that there are only five people on Maryland's death row.
"We believe the advances of DNA over the last 20 years substantially minimizes the chances of an innocent person being put to death," Schellenberger said.
The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment voted last week to recommend lawmakers repeal capital punishment. The vote of the 23-member commission initially was 13-7, but a representative from the attorney general's office is joining the minority, making it a 13-8 vote.
One member, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Gary Maynard, is abstaining. Ocean City Police Chief Bernadette DiPino has not formally recorded a vote yet.
The state commission voted on its recommendation by the majority last week, saying capital punishment doesn't deter crime and is affected by racial and jurisdictional disparities. Panel members in the majority also voted to include in their findings that there's "a real possibility" an innocent person could someday be executed by mistake.
The two reports are due Dec. 15.
There is currently a de facto moratorium against capital punishment in Maryland because of a ruling in late 2006 by the state's highest court. The Court of Appeals found that the state's lethal injection protocols weren't properly approved by a legislative committee.
Executions can't resume until a new protocol is created for the committee to approve. Corrections officials have said the protocols could be ready to submit to a legislative committee by the end of the year.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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