Prospects for repeal of the death penalty in Maryland appear no better than last year, when the effort failed by one vote in committee. But opponents of executions were back again Thursday with new twists on old arguments, including the high cost of death penalty prosecutions and the toll the process takes on the families of murder victims.
If those arguments fail again, there is also a push to create a large state commission to examine the use of the death penalty here. Only five men have been executed in the past 30 years in Maryland.
Baltimore?s Abell Foundation released a study Thursday that showed the pursuit of the death penalty in a single case ? including all the subsequent appeals ? cost $1.9 million, three times more than the prosecution of the same murder where a life sentence without parole is sought.
Baltimore County State?s Attorney Scott Shellenberger disputed the cost estimates. He said no new prosecutors or judges have been hired to pursue a death penalty case, though there is some extra expense involved.
“The death sentence is still an appropriate sentence for the worst of the worst,” said Shellenberger, whose jurisdiction has sought and won more death sentences than any other in Maryland. “Those who are executed will not kill again.”
“When you?re doing the right thing, money shouldn?t matter,” he said.
Executions in Maryland have been suspended because of a court order invalidating the lethal-injection procedures.
An unusual supporter of repeal was a New Jersey victims advocate, Kathy Garcia, who said she still supports the death penalty but has come to the conclusion it is “harmful to survivors.”
“The criminal justice system is hard enough for survivors,” said Garcia, whose nephew was murdered 20 years and who served on the NewJersey commission that recommended repeal. The prolonged process to put anyone to death “will continue to harm survivors.”
Sen. Jamie Raskin, a Montgomery County Democrat, is proposing a broad-based commission to study the death penalty. But Sen. James Brochin, a Towson Democrat, pointed to previous studies and asked, “What else is there to study?”
