O’Malley calls for end of executions, confirming plans for repeal bill

Capital punishment is “expensive and does not work,” and it is
inconsistent with “the sort of people we want to be,” Maryland Gov.
Martin O’Malley (D) said Tuesday as he confirmed his plans to sponsor
legislation to repeal the death penalty.

O’Malley spoke at a packed indoor rally alongside civil rights leaders
and other long-time repeal advocates, who expressed confidence that the
votes will materialize to make Maryland the 18th state to end capital
punishment.

“This is the year that we will end the death penalty in Maryland,” said
Benjamin T. Jealous, chief executive officer of the NAACP, who argued
that capital punishment was “broken from birth.”

Chances for passage have increased significantly this year with a pledge
from Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) to allow
debate on the floor of the chamber if there are insufficient votes in a
key committee to advance the bill.

For the last several years, repeal bills have remained bottled up in the
Judicial Proceedings Committee. The room where the panel meets was the
symbolic location chosen for Tuesday’s rally.

Miller told reporters earlier in the day that he personally supports
continued use of the death penalty, saying “there has to be an ultimate
penalty for someone who commits mass murder.”

But Miller renewed a prediction that an O’Malley-sponsored bill would
pass in his chamber. “It’s going to be close, though,” he said.

The Post has identified 23 likely Senate votes for a repeal bill, one
short of passage. But in recent days, an additional five members have
said they would consider supporting O’Malley-backed legislation.

Those include Sen. Robert A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County), who on Tuesday
called himself “decidedly undecided.” In the past, Zirkin has voiced
support for a 2009 bill that tightened evidentiary standards in capital
cases rather than repeal the death penalty altogether.

In his remarks, O’Malley argued that the death penalty consumes
resources that could be better utilized on other crime-fighting
strategies that have a track record of working.

But he also advanced a “moral” argument, saying that a majority of
executions worldwide take place in five countries: Iran, North Korea,
China, Yemen and the United States.

“In whose company do we choose to walk forward?” O’Malley asked.

He also quoted from slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.,
who said “hate cannot drive out hate.”

Speakers at the rally also included legislators who have sponsored
unsuccessful repeal bills, as well as Montgomery County Executive Isiah
Leggett (D) and Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D).

Baker said he saw an urgency to the repeal effort, so that he could tell
his wife of its success. His wife, Christa Beverly is a civil-rights
lawyer for whom abolishing the death penalty has been “her life’s work,”
Baker said. She is suffering from early onset dementia.

“I thank you for your efforts,” Baker said.