A former U.S. senator and a New Jersey police chief argued against the death penalty Monday before a commission that is expected to deliver recommendations to lawmakers later this year.
Former Sen. Joseph Davies Tydings, D-Md., and West Orange, N.J., Police Chief James Abbott told the commission they were not philosophically opposed to capital punishment, but each expressed serious misgivings about its application.
Tydings said if Maryland wants to keep the death penalty, “you have to be willing to spend the money” to provide an adequate defense so innocent defendants aren’t placed on death row.
He said one person has been freed from death row for every eight executed since the Supreme Court lifted a capital punishment moratorium 32 years ago.
However, the lawyer said a study released by the Abell Foundation this year found Maryland has spent $200 million during the past 30 years on its death penalty system and it was “fiscally impossible” to provide a fair system.
“Just the cost of compensating counsel, it will at least double what’s being spent now, if not triple,” Tydings said.
Abbott said he served on a New Jersey death penalty commission and found states have not discovered a way to carry out the death penalty quickly, cheaply and accurately. He said he would not want to put his family through the process if he were killed in the line of duty.
Abbott said if he were killed today, his 10-year-old daughter would be 30 by the time his killer was executed.
“I would rather she moved on and got the help she needed,” Abbott said, adding he supported the death penalty before serving on the commission but found “the reality is there is no closure in capital cases, just more attention to the murderer and less to the victim.”
Abbott said the commission found that victims’ services were severely lacking and a fraction of the money saved by eliminating the death penalty in favor of life without parole could make a huge difference.
The public hearing was the last for the commission, created in the previous legislative session to address concerns including racial, jurisdictional and socioeconomic issues in capital punishment. It will make recommendations to the General Assembly in December. – AP
