Victory for Death Penalty Opponents

Good news.

The Supreme Court stopped the execution of Virginia death row inmate Christopher Scott Emmett yesterday, a move that legal experts said might signal a nationwide halt to lethal injections until the justices decide next year whether the procedure amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

Death Penalty Repeal continued

Apparently, the Governor's remarks were similar to his op-ed in the WAPO, so there is no need to post them here. First, check out this article in the Sun.

A few things jumped out at me. The words of Harford County's top prosecutor were chilling to say the least.

Harford County's top prosecutor, Joseph I. Cassilly, said that not all lives are equal. Drug dealers and rapists, he said, are "not worth what someone's life is worth who's doing good."

"There is no justice without the death penalty," Cassilly said. "What coarsens and cheapens a life is when we allow a victim to be murdered, and society does nothing about it."

Thats right, the man charged with prosecuting lawbreakers in Howard county thinks that all lives are not equal (I wonder how he approaches repeat offenders, fairly I am sure). Thankfully though, much of the repeal opposition is slightly more reasoned and centered.

The main focus is now on the committee vote of Sen. Alex X. Mooney, a Fredrick Republican.

Near the end of an afternoon of testimony, Mooney said he has never supported an outright repeal of the death penalty but would consider an amended bill that limits the use of the punishment to the most heinous of cases. He also said he would consider voting for the repeal legislation in committee so that the measure could be debated by the full Senate.

"I am still taking it all in," he said. "It will take a couple of days to consider all that's been said. Both sides have made some good points."

Lets make sure he gets the point. E-mail Senator Mooney and tell him to at least get the repeal bill out of committee for debate on the floor.

Governor O'Malley to Testify for Death Penalty Repeal

Good for him. This is a pretty big deal, and it shows how important this issue is to the Governor. Hopefully, his remarks will be online by tonight or tomorrow.

In the meantime, read the Governor O'Malley's amazing editorial on the issue from today's WAPO. My favorite tidbit:

Human dignity is the concept that leads brave individuals to sacrifice their lives for the lives of strangers. Human dignity is the universal truth that is the basis of ethics. Human dignity is the fundamental belief on which the laws of this state and this republic are founded. And absent a deterrent value, the damage done to the concept of human dignity by our conscious communal use of the death penalty is greater than the benefit of even a justly drawn retribution.

Thank you, Sir. Lets hope the assembly joins him.

Update: You can help the Death Penalty repeal pass by contacting your legislators and urging them to vote yes on HB225 and SB211.

"I would like to see us repeal the death penalty," - Governor O'Malley

Now it is just up to the Maryland legislature to pass one of the repeal bills. I must say, I am very proud of the Governor for taking this stand. I believe that it says something about his philosophy of justice, that it is focused on saving lives and improving communities, not on revenge and retaliation.

Some on the other side of the debate share a different philosophy.

Michael Paranzino, executive director of Throw Away the Key, which supports capital punishment, said a debate on the death penalty is needed.
"It's better to debate this in the open," he said. "We will be educating the lawmakers about the victims of murder. While I think that it's a difficult task, I don't think it's impossible."

Throw Away the Key's website deals almost exclusively with child predators. They make a solid argument for the reform of how we deal with child predators that I am inclined to agree with. They are wrong however, on the necessity death penalty. We need look no further than the case of Kirk Bloodsworth:

Mr. Bloodsworth was convicted twice of killing a 9-year-old girl in 1984. He was placed on death row following his first trial. Mr. Bloodsworth was convicted again in a second trial, but received a life sentence instead of capital punishment. He was exonerated by DNA evidence in 1993.

While Mr. Bloodsworth sat in jail facing death, the real offender was roaming the streets free to harm more innocent people. It was neither a deterrent for other criminals nor a panacea for the family. Justice was certainly not done, and thankfully Mr. Bloodsworth lived to tell about it.

Throw away the key laments the quick release of child predators and violent offenders from our prisons. However, they never address the real cause of this problem, overcrowded prisons due to the drug war. Instead they would rather focus on easy, headline grabbing issues such as the death penalty. It is a shame, because they could be a strong advocate for changing our justice system so it can begin locking up real criminals again.

So, will the repeal bills pass? O'Malley is skeptical:

O'Malley said he would lobby for the repeal bills, although he did not include such a measure in the legislative agenda he released this week. "There are good people who have strong feelings on both sides of that issue," he said.

Still, he expressed skepticism that a majority of the House of Delegates or the Senate will support the bills.

"I'm not overly optimistic that they will, but there's a lot of new members, and perhaps given the problems, what went on in Florida, given all of the other issues having to do with the way that it's applied, maybe there is the will to do it," the governor said. Executions in Florida were halted last month amid concerns over the way lethal injections were administered.

I hope the Maryland Legislature does the right thing and gets one of these bill passed.
You can contact them and tell them how you feel.

In the News: 1/25/07

While Ben Cardin has been doing his thing in the Senate, Michael Steele has returned to a job that he knows well, running a political organization. Steele has been named head of GOPAC. GOPAC trains Republican activists and recruits candidates around the country. I hope the training doesn't include any of Mr. Steele's recent election antics.

Personally, I think this is a stupid move for GOPAC and for the national GOP as a whole. Though I find his politics reprehensible, Mr. Steele is one of the most interesting and dare I say vibrant Republicans in the country. As a Democrat, I am glad to have Steele heading up GOPAC, seeing as he has proven his inability to win elections, particularly at the grassroots level. I must assume that he couldn't even round up enough volunteers in Baltimore to hand out his literature on election day.

If Republicans were smart, they would call up Mr. Murdoch and get Steele a pundit job at Fox news where he can do what he does best, which is to be a pretty face and a slick voice for the GOP.

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Through inaction, Maryland lawmakers can put lethal injections and the death penalty on hold indefinitely. That is not enough for Delegate Samuel Rosenberg and Senator Lisa Gladden, who both introduced legislation this Tuesday that would abolish capital punishment in the state.

Good for them.

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The unemployment in rate in Maryland has dropped to an amazing 3.8%. This is good news, but simply having a job doesn't always translate into having the buying power to make the big moves in life. By big moves, I mean things such as buying a home, paying off school loans, and starting a family. I still have all of these things ahead of me, and to be honest, they are completely out of reach, despite having what I consider a "good job".

This brings me to an recent Sun article on affordable housing. This bit in particular depressed the hell out of me:

In the Baltimore metro area, the annual income needed to purchase a median-priced home of $275,000 (based on third-quarter data) was $94,206, according to the study -- well above the $60,000 that is the going rate for registered nurses, and slightly less than the $50,000 that is the prevailing wage for experienced elementary school teachers and police officers. (The study assumed one-income households. With two-income households, the gap is less daunting, but that's another story.)

Yet the key phrase here is "metro area." With a median sales price of about $170,000, homes in the city are in reach to those workers, though not to lower-paid workers such as nursing aides and housekeepers.

Ouch. Lets just say my salary falls far below the lowest amount mentioned above. Even with houses in Baltimore being generally lower priced than around the state, I feel that I will remain a perpetual renter.

Realtors are making the argument that the City Council shouldn't intervene, because the issue is regional, not city based. I am inclined to agree. If affordable housing is not being created all over the state, it would be unfair to basically force those who want affordable housing to live in the city. Many issues arise here, including school and neighborhood quality. Low income families should have at least and opportunity to compete for affordable housing in the suburbs around the state.

So I think the City Council should still consider raising the affordable unit requirement to 20%, as one proposal has suggested. However, Governor O'Malley and the State legislature, as well as county governments need to step up as well. Maryland is made stronger by our economic diversity. We cannot risk losing such diversity by forcing out our low income population. Heck, as a person who considers himself middle class, I am worried about being squeezed out too. The state needs to work together to change the affordable housing situation.

The Death Penalty Hits a 30 Year Low

And for good reason:

"The fact is they've gotten a lot of the wrong guys," said Deborah Fleischaker, director of the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project.

It shouldn't take too much thinking to realize why. Human error casts it's shadow over all of our actions

Since the death penalty was reinstated, 123 people have been freed from death row after significant questions were raised about their convictions - 14 of them through DNA testing, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

There are other reasons that capital punishment is going the way of the dinosaur:

Among the many causes given by prosecutors, lawyers and death penalty critics: the passage of more state laws that allow juries to impose life without parole; an overall drop in violent crime; and a reluctance among some authorities to pursue the death penalty because of the high costs of prosecuting a capital case.

So lets see. The death penalty is expensive. The death penalty is frequently misapplied. A better and more severe (in my opinion) punishment is available in life without parole.

There should be no question in the minds of Maryland legislators as they are faced with the prospect of writing new regulations for lethal injections in the state. They should (and most likely will) filibuster and refuse to codify murder, effectively reinstating the moratorium on the death penalty in Maryland.

In the News 12/27/06

Sadly, murders in Baltimore have topped last year's totals. The police don't even try to deny that the #1 reason for these murders is the existence of the illegal drug trade.

Homicides in Baltimore passed the 2005 total over the holiday weekend, driven police said, by illegal drugs and by a street culture that stresses retribution over cooperation with police.

...

Police said more than 80 percent of the city's homicide victims and over 90 percent of the suspects charged with homicide had a criminal record. The average homicide victim had been arrested more than 8 times, most typically for drug offenses.

Wow, what a huge surprise. A new generation of heavily armed businessmen fighting for their own corner in one of the most lucrative markets in the world. The article continues:

"We're not backing away from fighting crime, but Commissioner Hamm, from the day he took office, has said we cannot arrest our way out." Jablow said. "What we are doing is a targeted, proactive enforcment that makes sure we get our worst offenders off of the streets."

Noting that the crimninal background of the typical homicide suspect is virtually identical to the criminal background of the typical victim, Jablow said much of the city's violence was fueled by the illegal drug trade.

Proactive enforcement means raiding drug corners, enforcing lifestyle arrests, and hoping that you get lucky and one of the random people you arrest is carrying something illegal or has a warrant out for their arrest. The police basically admit that they are beaten and unable to stop the violence in Baltimore.

Drug prohibition is destroying the city. Police lament the lack of cooperation they receive from those involved in the drug trade, but what do they expect? Drug traffickers exist in a lawless underground economy. They impose their own cutthroat rules and regulations in the absence of economic law and order.

Basically, the police can't help you get your package back if it is stolen. The police can't help you take your corner back, or arrest someone for stealing your illegal goods. Even mentioning involvement in drug trafficking to a police officer could mean an arrest. Drug traffickers are left to enforce their own system of "justice" which leaves Baltimore with 270 murders for the year (so far).

I must also remind my readers that there is no end in sight for this violence. It will only end when we re-evaluate our drug-policy. Until then, the illegal drug trade will suck the life out of our city, our state, and our nation. If anyone thinks there is another option for ending the cycle of violence in Baltimore City, I invite you to please leave a comment.

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Of course, though officers admit that the illegal drug trade is the largest cause of violence in the city, they certainly don't plan on changing tactics or enforcement strategies. Instead, the police are busy bragging about the wonderful "EXILE" program, designed to reduce "gun crime". After reading the previous story, this program is clearly working wonders. I am sure that in a few more years, "gun crime" will be completely eliminated.

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WAPO editors weigh in on the death penalty in Maryland.

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And in other news (that illustrates the disconnect in priorities between Baltimore neighborhoods), folks in my neck of the city are concerned about a possible heli-pad being built at Union Memorial hospital. I live around 32nd and Guilford, so I guess things might get a bit noisier.

Hot Topic of the Day: The Death Penalty

Wonderful news for Maryland: executions in the state have been suspended. I won't go into the decision, mostly because I have very little legal expertise and I am inspired by Stephanie Dray's opinion on the issue. However, if you want a quick legal rundown of the decision, head over to Crablaw.

Mrs. Dray takes the "make the death penalty safe and rare" position, certainly one of the most respectable ones to have in this debate. I agree with Dray on her point that there are some crimes which are so heinous, they should require the death penalty. She mentions John Allen Muhammad, the adult suspect in the DC sniper killings, as an example of such a crime and criminal. Indeed, Mr. Muhammad is a terrible man. He deserves no mercy. Some would say he deserves nothing more than the same death he and Malvo inflicted on their victims. These people may be right, and they are mostly driven by righteous anger.

The problem is, our justice system doesn't run on righteous anger. And though Mr. Muhammad does not deserve our mercy, we would reduce ourselves to his level were we not to give it.

I do not believe, as Dray assumes that many death penalty opponents do, that killing is wrong in every case or instance. Revenge killing by the State IS wrong in every instance, and that is what the death penalty boils down to.

There is no proof that the death penalty is an effective deterrent for violent crime. In fact, States with the death penalty have higher murder rates than states without it. It is solely reserved for those who murder in ways that revolt us.

In Maryland (and many other states I would assume) the death penalty has been proven to be applied by juries and prosecutors in a racist manner. Black males (particularly those who murder whites), to this day, are still more likely to be sentenced to death than whites in Maryland.

To argue that the death penalty is some sort of "criminal extermination service" is disturbing to me. If it isn't a deterrent, and it isn't revenge (can I assume state sanctioned revenge killing is wrong?), then it must be some sort societal fix. Killing serial killers as if these men are congenitally diseased when they are simply products of severe abuse in their childhood is insanity. Any argument that assumes there is some sort of genetic code or trigger for criminality is bunk anyway, but death penalty supporters continue to use these arguments to this day.

There is also the desire by death penalty proponents to separate society into "the criminals" and "the rest of us". This is a terrible and false dichotomy. Human beings are all capable of barbarity, of anger, of lust. We are all capable of losing control and we are all able to see the error of our ways and make positive changes in our lives. I believe the number one priority of the justice system must first be protection of the innocent. After that however, its next function must not be revenge, but instead rehabilitation.

I am a progressive, and I trust the government to do many things. I would trust them with my health care. I trust them with my defense, with my education (state schools, k-College).
I suppose that I trust the state to tax me equitably. I guess I trust them to not take corporate money in exchange for votes, but not really.

I certainly don't trust the state when it comes to going to war. In fact, if you want the best reason not to support the death penalty, based purely on the fact that it requires the state to carry it out?



As Governor, George W. Bush signed off on 152 executions. Now I ask you, can we really trust the State to kill people "correctly"?

NAACP Leaving Baltimore

Who can really blame them? To be honest, they are only moving their headquarters to Washington DC, but when you look at recent news, Baltimore and Maryland certainly seem hostile to the goals the NAACP wishes to achieve.

Though Maryland elected Democrats statewide, they did so while subtly snubbing the NAACP and the Black community. Ben Cardin famously skipped the NAACP debate vs Mike Steele (please see UPDATE at the bottom of the post). All reasons aside, Kweisi Mfume's Senate run was largely ignored by the Democratic Machine.

Then today, first I see that Governor-elect O'Malley, despite his personal opposition to the death penalty, as well as his knowledge of the University of Maryland Study which indicts the MD death penalty as racist, will still continue to carry out the death penalty in Maryland as long as the courts approve of lethal injection.

That opinion is completely unacceptable. No Democrat should be able to read the Maryland Study and conclude that the death penalty should be allowed to continue in Maryland. I could care less what the court thinks about lethal injection. The death penalty is madness, no matter the method. Parris Glendenning, for all his faults, understood this clearly when he instituted the moratorium. O'Malley must restore this moratorium on the death penalty.

Governor-Elect O'Malley, perhaps Sheila Dixon as well, need to do something to restore some sense of trust in our justice system, particularly in Baltimore City.

The NAACP, perhaps in their final Baltimore hurrah, have alleged that the Baltimore City police have been engaging in illegal arrests. This is what you get when you adopt the draconian policing policies that made Rudy Guliani famous.

Baltimore lawyers said in court documents that that arrests for "quality of life" crimes are not illegal; that City State's Attorney decision not to prosecute some crimes does not mean those arrests were unlawful; and that using a performance evaluation system for police officers based on the number of arrests is not unlawful.

Does anyone else really believe that every loitering and littering arrest was justified? How about every strip search? I think the NAACP most likely has a solid case. When people are judged by quantity not quality, quality obviously suffers. The evaluation system is one of the most troubling things in the suit. Police are being encouraged to make as many arrests as possible, and innocent people are being unreasonable arrested as a result.

I think it will be important to ask who was pushing these officers to get the high numbers. At what level did the order come from? I have a feeling our Governor-elect getting out of Baltimore just in time. Lets see if this case pulls him back into the quagmire of Baltimore crime and punishment.

So I cannot say I am surprised that the NAACP has begun finalizing plans to move to Washington DC in 2007. I am amazed they haven't left already. And yet:

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond has said the organization wanted to move its headquarters to be closer to Congress, government agencies and the many news media outlets in Washington. He said the NAACP loved everything about Baltimore, except its location.

Chairman Bond, speaking diplomatically, to say the least.

UPDATE: Stephanie Dray has correctly pointed out that it was really Mike Steele who intentionally skipped the statewide NAACP debate, and Ben Cardin who only skipped a smaller NAACP sponsored debate due to scheduling conflicts. Senator-elect Cardin had planned on debating Steele in the statewide debate, which Mr. Steele intentionally bowed out of. Thanks Steph. Sorry for the error.

Furthermore, I have no clue why the NAACP has decided to leave Baltimore. I was only making the point that they have every reason to. Though I respect his opinion, I do not agree with The League that the NAACP is abandoning the city. I do agree that Baltimore is losing a part of what made it special.

In The News

SADDEST NEWS OF THE DAY (for me at least)

Darren Brown, AKA Wiz of the AMAZING bands Mega City 4 and Ipanema has passed away. I just saw these guys play a few months ago and this is breaking my heart. From a messageboard:

The sudden and tragic death of Wiz (Darren Brown) has been announced.

Wiz died in hospital on 6th Dec 2007. His closest friends and family were with him.

Wiz was dearly loved by all his friends and family. He was a greatly respected and extraordinary musician and writer who touched the lives of many.

He will be deeply missed.

A page has been created with further news and comment.

Please leave your messages there.

http://www.myspace.com/wiztribute

Yeah, this has ruined my whole day. Wiz and his music have been a large part of my life for the past few years, and this is just stunning and horrible. It will be an all Wiz day on the ipod and then on the turntable at home.

RIP Wiz

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A suit has been brought to the Circuit Court of Baltimore that

"seeks to call attention to the reality that any person arrested in Maryland should not expect legal counsel when they first appear before a judicial officer," said Doug Colbert, a University of Maryland, Baltimore law professor assisting Venable's attorneys.

Apparently, poor defendants are being sent to their bail hearings without a public defender. I am not a legal scholar (+perhaps some of the more lawyerly MD bloggers can help me out here) but this doesn't seem very fair.

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Maryland is having budget problems.

Del. Murray D. Levy, a Charles County Democrat who is one of the Assembly's budget experts, said part of the problem is that Maryland's basic tax structure hasn't changed as its economy has evolved. Services are exempt from the sales tax, for example, but the economy is growing steadily more dependent on the service industry, Levy said.

Maryland could solve some of these problems by raising some taxes and lowering others to make revenue track more closely with the economy, but the process would be politically difficult because some people would inevitably come out winners and others losers, Levy said.

Franchot says he will beef up the revenue forecasting office, which he said has been off by as much as $1 billion in recent years.

"On the one hand, you appropriate money that turns out not to be there, and you have to cut dollars, or you are told money will not be there, so you make cuts in programs and then the money appears too late to be allocated," Franchot said. "The point is, these programs affect real people, so you want the figures to be as correct as possible."

First, its nice to know that Maryland will have progressive Peter Franchot as our new comptroller.

Secondly, what a shame it is that Martin O'Malley has been saddled by budget issues at the start of both his mayoral and gubernatorial careers. It makes me wonder what O'Malley would do differently if he had a budget surplus. One of his first tests it appears, is whether or not O'Malley can turn the State's financial situation around.

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Despite what some national media coverage would have you believe, Baltimore City still has heroes.

A heroic rescue took place in West Baltimore Wednesday morning, as a sweeping fire swept through the second and third floors of a row homes on West Pratt Street.

...

Quick acting neighbors Nicholas Matkins and Jeff Kuhn were outside on the street as the fire spread inside the building.

"There were five kids at the window," said Matkins. "As they were jumping we were catching."

When they saw young children standing by a window ready to jump, Matkins and Kuhn were there to catch them.

Moments later, Kuhn climbed up to the window and began pulling the children out and handing them down to Matkins and other bystanders who were gathering around the building.

"I saw one of the kids jump and hit the small roof," said Kuhn. He added, "I figured one of them was gonna get hurt. I climbed up on the roof and just started grabbing them out the window and passing them down to the next people."

All involved in the fire, including the family dog, are alive and well save for some bruises.

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Great news for Death Row inmates, Maryland may be recruiting the best and brightest doctors around....

...to kill you.

Yeah, yeah, its not all that doom and gloom and I have a rather cynical view here. Still, it just turns my stomach to see the death of a human being discussed in such a detached way. The moratorium seemed like a fine idea to me and it would help our courts avoid the difficult discussion of how gently they should carry out state sanctioned revenge killing.

A No-Brainer for O'Malley - Re-establish the Moratorium on the Death Penalty

We should hope that after January, we won't be reading stories like this about our fellow Marylanders.

Kirk Bloodsworth spent nine years in prison, including two years on death row, after he was wrongly convicted of the 1984 killing of a 9-year-old girl. He was scheduled to speak Tuesday at Goucher College in Towson at an event sponsored by Maryland Citizens Against State Executions.

"I just want to tell people what it was like for me and how easy it can happen," Bloodsworth said Monday in a telephone interview. "If it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody."

I can't really think of an easier decision for Governor elect O'Malley than to re-establish the moratorium on the death penalty in Maryland. Glendening set the precedent, effectively stopping the death penalty from being carried out in Maryland. This move however, was not one aimed at attacking the morality of the death penalty itself (an argument that I personally think holds some water), but instead that was based on a University of Maryland study of the way the death penalty was applied in Maryland. For a slightly dated, but in depth look at the study, go here.

But will O'Malley do it? Things look good, in my opinion. O'Malley has come out against the death penalty personally:

O'Malley, who is Catholic, has said he personally opposes capital punishment, but spokesmen for his campaign have said he will enforce the laws of the state, including the application of the death penalty. Calls Monday to O'Malley's staff for further comment were not immediately returned.

When O'Malley signed on in 2000 to a newspaper advertisement taken out by former Mayor Kurt Schmoke and the late lawmaker Howard Rawlings asking for a moratorium, he talked about the issue.

"I am not in favor of the death penalty. I don't think as people in a civilized society we can support capital punishment. You don't promote respect for life by making us participate in the death penalty," he said at the time.

Of course, Governor elect O'Malley's personal views on the issue should not really be involved here. Unless a new study comes out refuting the findings at Maryland, as a Democrat I feel like O'Malley's hands are tied. He must re-establish the moratorium on the death penalty if he is truly interested in reversing the damage done to our state by the Ehrlich/Steele administration.

If somehow, O'Malley still needs a kick in the pants, the assembly is ready to deliver it:

Maryland lawmakers have regularly submitted measures to repeal the death penalty law. Democratic Delegate Maggie McIntosh of Baltimore, who has supported a repeal, said she expected it would be introduced again. "I'm sure I'll be a co-sponsor," she said.

Lets hope someone delivers on this issue. Re-establishing the moratorium would be a positive, if not symbolic, way of reforming the ailing criminal justice system in Maryland.