WJZ-TV posts, "Petition To Put Death Penalty Repeal On The 2014 Ballot Fails," by Pat Warren.
Opponents of the death penalty repeal needed 18,500 signatures by May 31 to get the measure on the November 2014 ballot. They managed to get 15,000.
The petition drive was led by Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger and MDPetitions.com.
Shellenberger and MDPetitions.com leader Neil Parrott announced Friday afternoon that the drive to put death penalty on the ballot has failed.
Update: The Baltimore Sun posts, "Efforts to restore capital punishment fall short," by Erin Cox.
The group hoping to put Maryland's new death penalty repeal law before voters in 2014 faced a midnight deadline tonight to give 18,579 valid signatures to election officials — the first hurdle in collecting more than 55,000 signatures to send a law to referendum.
The Maryland legislature voted this year to remove the death penalty from the books, replacing it with life without parole as the ultimate sentence in the state. When Gov. Martin O'Malley signed the law, Maryland became the sixth state in as many years to outlaw the death penalty.
A coalition of prosecutors and the voter advocacy group MdPetitions.com launched the unsuccessful effort to let voters decide whether to keep the death penalty. Friday's announcement means nothing stands in the way of the repeal taking effect in October.
Earlier coverage from Maryland begins at the link.
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