In Maryland

State Legislatures are beginning to crank up, and the death penalty is front and center in Maryland.  The Sunday Washington Post carried the OpEd, "A Moral Test for Maryland Legislators," by The Right Rev. John Bryson Chane and the Right Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, respectively, the Episcopal bishops of Washington and Maryland.

As the Maryland General Assembly prepares to convene on Wednesday, we hope that legislators will decide against the death penalty in Maryland. Doing so would represent an enormous moral failure for the state and for civil society.

For decades, many religious groups have voiced strong public opposition to capital punishment, believing that every human being is given life by God and that only God has the right to deny life. Of course, we understand that the state must seek justice and prosecute wrongdoing, but we cannot condone the state pronouncing a sentence of death for wrongdoing -- no matter how violent and brutal the crime. There is simply no moral justification for the state to execute a child of God in the name of justice.

The Episcopal Church has carefully studied the application of the death penalty in many states. In every case, it has concluded that the death penalty is unjust and ineffective. It is immoral to any who are seriously committed to the ethics of Jesus, who continually forbade violence as a means to solve problems caused by evil.

The Sunday Baltimore Sun carried the editorial, "The Annapolis agenda."

Maryland lawmakers return for their annual 90-day legislative session in Annapolis this Wednesday with some trepidation. The anxiety-prone need only wait one week for the genuine discomfort to begin. That's when Gov. Martin O'Malley must submit his budget for the next fiscal year, and it's shaping up to be a headache and a half.

And:

Here, in brief, is some of what legislators should be able to accomplish in the next three months:

Death penalty. With the governor's task force's findings in hand, Maryland must repeal capital punishment. The evidence is all too clear: The inequities and opportunities for error are too great while a sentence of life without parole is a workable, more humane alternative.

"Budget deficit will be session's dominant issue," is Liam Farrell's report in the Capital of Annapolis.

Through attempts to ban the death penalty, a successful smoking ban in bars and restaurants and internecine squabbles on changing the rules for DNA collection, the one constant underlying legislative work has been the budget: how much is money is available, will any taxes be raised, and will a new program ever get the funds it is promised?

"Death penalty, police surveillance among laws in play this session," is Steve Lash's Daily Record report.

Sen. Brian E. Frosh, who chairs the influential Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, said he is prepared to tackle “the two big ones” during the 2009 General Assembly session that begins Wednesday.

The Montgomery County Democrat was referring to legislative proposals to repeal the death penalty and to prevent a repeat of the overzealous surveillance by state police of peaceful protest groups that occurred in 2005 and 2006.

The legislative initiatives follow the release of two state reports issued since lawmakers adjourned in April: one calling for capital punishment’s abolition and the other assailing state police for an “end justifies the means” approach in which officers violated the free-speech and peaceful-assembly rights of protestors in the name of protecting public safety.

Both Frosh and House Speaker Michael E. Busch, D-Anne Arundel, said the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment’s report could “change the dynamic” that’s led to the defeat of bills to abolish the death penalty in Maryland.

So, too, did Sen. Jamin B. “Jamie” Raskin, D-Montgomery, a commission member and chief sponsor of the legislation that created the panel last year.

The commission, chaired by former U.S. Attorney General Benjamin R. Civiletti, found that death sentences are often tied to the race of the defendant and victim or the location where the murder occurred. The panel also faulted the cost of capital punishment and found it an ineffective deterrent to homicide.

“The commission’s report will change a lot of people’s minds,” said Raskin, who was cautiously optimistic that repeal could come this year. “I think the politics are very close but that there is a strong dynamic against capital punishment.”

Sen. Bryan W. Simonaire, who described himself as a “pretty firm” death-penalty supporter last session, said he will be “open minded” heading into this year’s term.

“I have not made a conclusive, ‘this is the way I’m going to vote,’” said the Anne Arundel Republican. Simonaire said he will continue to research the death-penalty issue and strongly consider his constituents’ views.

“I’m hearing passionately from both sides” of the issue, said Simonaire, a Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee member. “I’m hearing basically 50-50 from my constituents right now on this issue.”

But lawmakers who back capital punishment said the report has not spurred a change in the General Assembly. They noted that the commission’s call for abolition was on a 13-9 vote: a two-vote swing would have blocked the call for repeal.

Earlier coverage of the issue in Maryland begins with this post.