Gov. Martin O?Malley said Thursday he “sure would” sign a bill abolishing the death penalty in favor of life without parole, but co-sponsors of the bill said they are still rounding up votes.
“We?re not there yet,” said Sen. Lisa Gladden, lead sponsor and vice chair of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, which will consider the bill beingintroduced today. “We have five votes” in the committee, but “we need six,” Gladden said.
“We?re counting,” said Del. Samuel Sandy Rosenberg, chief House sponsor and vice chair of the Judiciary Committee, which will take up the measure.
Thirteen senators have signed on to the bill, as have 38 delegates, and several mainstream religious organizations are backing the cause, including those representing Catholics, Episcopalians, Methodists, Jews, Presbyterians, Lutherans and the United Church of Christ.
“I felt we are now at a sea change,” said Gladden, a public defender. One mistake killing an innocent person is “too much.”
“I think other legislators don?t want blood on their hands,” Gladden said.
“The death penalty is broken beyond repair,” Rosenberg said.
The Court of Appeals has stayed the execution of Vernon Evans Jr. until state officials can review execution procedures.
Kirk Bloodsworth has a personal stake in the outcome of the bill.
“I?m living proof that the criminal justice system makes serious mistakes,” Bloodsworth said at a news conference in support of the bill.
In 1985, he was convicted of the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl and sentenced to death. But in 1993, DNA testing cleared him of the killing. He was the first American on death row exonerated by DNA evidence.
He said he is now one of 123 people in the U.S. who had been wrongfully convicted and exonerated.
A poll in 2005 for the Maryland Catholic Conference shows 56 percent of Marylanders support the death penalty, but an even larger number ? 63 percent ? said the sentence of life without the possibility of parole is an acceptable substitute.
In a brief interview, O?Malley told reporters: “We waste a lot of money pursuing a policy that doesn?t work to reduce crime or save lives. We could be putting that money into crime reduction.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
