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Death Penalty
RSC (2010-4) Death Penalty
Submitted by Marcia and Bill Reinke on Wed 10 Mar 2010 - 1:31 pmAll four bills relating to the Death Penalty are on hold, pending results of hearings before the Judiciary and Judicial Proceedings Committees this month. HB 994, which would increase the types of evidence allowed for a capital prosecution, (See RSC 3) is to be heard by Judiciary March 16 at 1 p.m., along with HB 306, concerning the murder of a child during a sexual offence and HB 1078, the personhood amendment, which would eliminate capital punishment but also the right to an aborti
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Submitted by Marcia and Bill Reinke on Wed 24 Feb 2010 - 3:53 pmTwo more bills relating to the Maryland Death Penalty have been filed, bringing the 2010 total to four.
RSC (2010-2) Death Penalty
Submitted by Marcia and Bill Reinke on Wed 10 Feb 2010 - 11:52 pmTwo bills relating to the Maryland death penalty have been filed, both aimed at increasing the likelihood of capital sentences. HB 306 Crimes - Death Penalty - Murder of a Child During a Sexual Offense (Smigiel plus 30) appears in reaction to the horrific rape and murder of a young Eastern Shore girl in December.
RSC (2010-1) Death Penalty
Submitted by Marcia and Bill Reinke on Thu 28 Jan 2010 - 12:10 pmAt this writing no death penalty bills have been filed. In 2009, following much debate, legislators sidestepped a full repeal of capital punishment, proposed by Governor Martin O’Malley, by requiring that prosecutors have either DNA evidence, a videotaped confession of the killer or a video recording of the crime in order to seek the death penalty, a hurdle which all but eliminates most death penalty prosecutions. It is expected, therefore, that pro-death penalty legislators will try to expand the kinds of evidence which can be used to bring ca
LWVMD Position: Capital Punishment
Submitted by LWV Maryland on Sun 13 Dec 2009 - 1:26 am
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: (2005)
Support for
- The abolition of the death penalty.
- For so long as Maryland has a death penalty, the League supports the following reforms for its equitable and consistent application:
a. uniform, statewide, criteria for death penalty prosecutions.
b. changing the standard of proof in weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors in sentencing from “preponderance of the evidence” to “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
c. requiring prosecutors to provide open file discovery and all favorable evidence to the defense, and to establish uniform internal guidelines for cases that are particularly subject to human error, such as those relying on eyewitnesses, co-defendants or jailhouse informants.
d. having mechanisms for preserving evidence such as DNA and for introducing newly discovered evidence.
e. requiring judges to explain to jurors life without parole as a sentencing option and to charge the jury to weigh mitigating factors.
f. effective defense including methods to screen, appoint and supervise lawyers representing defendants charged with capital crimes, adequate compensation for public defense counsel and sufficient funding to mount an effective defense.
RSC (2009-6) Death Penalty
Submitted by Marcia and Bill Reinke on Wed 22 Apr 2009 - 11:46 amThe end result of volatile death penalty debate in both chambers is legislation which will make capital prosecutions more difficult but which falls short of repeal. After three days of procedural votes to get around an unfavorable committee report, plus floor amendments and argument, the Senate voted 34 – 13, to approve a version re-titled Criminal Law – Death Penalty – Evidence.
