The Maryland Commission

Gadi Dechter reports, "Panel's death penalty backers still in the minority," in today's Baltimore Sun.

Two more members of a state commission reviewing capital punishment indicated yesterday that they will recommend keeping the death penalty in Maryland, but a majority of panelists still support abolishing the practice.

At a meeting last night in Annapolis, a representative of Attorney General Douglas M. Gansler joined the minority that backs keeping the death penalty, slimming the abolitionists' margin to 13-8 on the 23-member commission. Also, Ocean City Police Chief Bernadette DiPino, a panelist who did not attend yesterday's meeting, told The Baltimore Sun she was leaning toward voting to retain capital punishment. Gary Maynard, secretary of Maryland's Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services, is also on the commission but is remaining neutral.

Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger, a leading death penalty advocate on the panel, said he hoped the enlarged minority would decrease the chances of a death penalty repeal by lawmakers. "Any more votes we pick up makes [a repeal movement] that much more challenged," Shellenberger said. "Hopefully, people will read the minority report and see that there's a lot of logic to it, whether you're a citizen or a citizen legislator."

And:

The commission was established this year by the legislature amid nationwide scrutiny of capital punishment because of high-profile exonerations of wrongly convicted death-row inmates. Last week, a majority voted to recommend abolishing the death penalty, finding that it could lead to the execution of innocent people and that it was tainted by racial bias, among other flaws.

Yesterday, at the commission's final gathering, panelist Oliver Smith indicated he was considering switching his vote and supporting a ban on executions. Smith's son, a Washington police officer, was killed in a 1997 attempted robbery.

"Minority Report Submitted on Md. Death Penalty," is the AP report via Baltimore's WJZ-TV.

The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment voted last week to recommend lawmakers repeal capital punishment. The vote of the 23-member commission initially was 13-7, but a representative from the attorney general's office is joining the minority, making it a 13-8 vote.

One member, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Gary Maynard, is abstaining. Ocean City Police Chief Bernadette DiPino has not formally recorded a vote yet.

The state commission voted on its recommendation by the majority last week, saying capital punishment doesn't deter crime and is affected by racial and jurisdictional disparities. Panel members in the majority also voted to include in their findings that there's "a real possibility" an innocent person could someday be executed by mistake.

The two reports are due Dec. 15.

There is currently a de facto moratorium against capital punishment in Maryland because of a ruling in late 2006 by the state's highest court. The Court of Appeals found that the state's lethal injection protocols weren't properly approved by a legislative committee.

Earlier coverage begins with this post.