Former U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti will head a commission, which includes a first person released from the death row because of DNA evidence, to study the death penalty in Maryland, Gov. Martin O?Malley announced Thursday.
“I come in with views, but they?re not fixed on the death penalty,” Civiletti, a senior partner at the Venable law firm, told reporters at a news conference in Annapolis.
He called commission?s subject “complex,” “difficult” and “sad,” and said he was no expert, but seeking more information.
The commission, enacted by the legislature with five months to make recommendations, is required to study:
? The racial, jurisdictional and socio-economic impact of capital punishment;
? The risk of innocent people being executed;
? The cost of prolonged court cases.
This issues will be compared to the sentence of life without parole and the impact of DNA evidence on its fairness and accuracy.
The commission is balanced between opponents and supporters of the death penalty, with both sides pledging to keep an open mind.
In one irony, Kirk Bloodsworth, who was freed from death row because of DNA, is serving on the commission with Baltimore County State?s Attorney Scott Shellenberger, who now heads the office which prosecuted Bloodsworth twice for a rape and murder he didn?t commit and which has won more death sentences than any other prosecutors in Maryland.
Sporting a tie with a strand of DNA on it, Bloodsworth said he was honored the governor appointed him, and his principal goal is “to make sure innocent people are not sentenced to death.”
Shellenberger has testified against eliminating the death penalty, but said, “it?s such an important issue that it?s not unreasonable to ask people to study it every few years.”
The commission was created to resolve a legislative impasse over the abolition of the death penalty, a position the governor supports.
“In my 22 years here, I don?t think that there?s anything that?s been debated more passionately in Annapolis,” said House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel.
The 23-member commission includes three delegates, two senators, three relatives of murder victims, a police chief, police officer, a correctional officer, a Catholic bishop, a rabbi, a minister, an ex-judge, the public safety secretary, a public defender and three members of the public.
