Members of a commission that will recommend repealing capital punishment in Maryland said they were “proud” to participate in a process that could change the state’s judicial system forever.
Whether their recommendations will lead to successful legislation remains unknown, but at its last meeting Thursday, the commission’s majority members said they kept open minds throughout the process.
“I am proud,” said Kirk Bloodsworth, a panelist who sat on death row for two years before DNA exonerated him.
“I served in the U.S. Marine Corps, and I got to tell you, there’s a distinction and honor and integrity that really flows through this group, though some of us have different points of view.”
The commission plans to formally present the report at a news conference tentatively scheduled for Dec. 15.
Members agreed it was important that all members attend to present both sides of the issue.
Those members who voted against abolishing the death penalty Thursday submitted their report penned by Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger.
Shellenberger said the fact that only five people were executed in Maryland — five remain on death row during a de facto moratorium — demonstrates the state uses capital punishment appropriately.
He said advances in DNA minimize the chance that an innocent person could be wrongly executed.
Shellenberger encouraged the panel not to take a vote that would include a formal recommendation to replace the death penalty with sentences of life without parole.
“I think we are beyond the scope of what the legislature has asked us to do,” he said.
Of the commission’s 23 members, 13 voted to repeal the death penalty and eight to keep it. One member abstained and another has yet to cast an official vote.
The commission briefly discussed recommending life sentences be served in maximum-security prisons, as advocated by panelist Oliver Smith, whose son, a police officer, was murdered during an attempted robbery.
“We’re only talking about the worst of the worst here,” Smith said.
“Right now there are only five of those.”
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