 |
REPEAL THE DEATH PENALTY IN MARYLAND!The 2009 legislative session is when the final vote on abolition in Maryland will take place, and the time to get involved is now! |
Maryland Residents: Take Action!
» Get more involved: sign up today for the Maryland Death Penalty Repeal Network!
» Write or call your legislators and tell them you support repealing the death penalty.
- Use Amnesty's Elected Official Search to find your legislators, or call the Maryland Legsilative Information desk at 301-970-5400.
- Call the main switchboard in Annapolis at 1-800-492-7122 and ask to speak with your legislators.
- Every legislator need to hear from constituents. If you have already contacted your legislators in the past on this issue, please do so again now and ask friends and family to do the same.
Background
On December 12, the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment issued its report recommending that Maryland repeal the death penalty. After five public hearings and hours of testimony from experts as well as the general public, the Commission determined that Maryland's death penalty is:
- Racially and geographically biased
- More expensive
- Harmful to victims' families
- Not a deterrent.
The Commission also concluded that there is a “real possibility” of executing an innocent person in Maryland.
» Get the facts on the death penalty in Maryland and why it should be repealed.
"Are any of us willing to sacrifice a member of our own family -- wrongly convicted, sentenced and executed -- in order to secure the execution of five rightly convicted murders? And even if we were, could that public policy be called "just"? I do not believe it can."
-Martin O'Malley, Maryland Governor
