A majority of Prince George’s County Council members are co-sponsoring a resolution urging the state to repeal the death penalty.
“It’s past time for the state to abolish the death penalty,” Council Member Eric Olson told The Examiner recently. “It’s clear that there can be errors and biases in the death penalty, and it’s irreversible.”
Olson, Council Chair Camille Exum, Council Vice Chair David Harrington and Council Members Marilynn Bland and Samuel Dean are co-sponsoring the resolution calling for elimination of the death penalty and the establishment of a life prison sentence without parole as the state’s highest penalty. The resolution was introduced last week.
There is legislation in committee in the Maryland General Assembly that would end capital punishment. If the nine-member council approves the resolution, it would follow the Montgomery County Council, which last month became the first governmental jurisdiction in Maryland to endorse the proposed state legislation ending the death penalty.
“With respect to these counties, I’d say these politicians seem to think that Maryland jurors, judges and prosecutors are either too dumb or corrupt to apply the death penalty fairly,” said Michael Paranzino, president of the Kensington-based pro-death penalty group Throw Away the Key. “And, I disagree.”
Executions now are suspended in Maryland following a judge’s ruling in December that the state’s execution protocols must be properly reviewed.
Maryland Citizens Against State Executions Executive Director Jane Henderson said it would be “absolutely” helpful to have Prince George’s County Council on the record opposing the death penalty.
“I think it’s appropriate for the county councils to do this,” Henderson said. “Because they are representing the will of the people they represent.
“The death penalty has proven to be racially discriminatory, there is no evidence that it deters crime and, in general, I think it’s proven to be a system that doesn’t really accomplish what we think it accomplishes,” she said.
Harrington, the resolution’s prime sponsor, declined multiple requests for comment.
