By John Wagner December 31, 2014
Outgoing Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) on Wednesday cemented his legacy on a defining issue of his tenure, announcing that he would commute the sentences of Maryland’s four remaining death-row inmates to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
With the stroke of a pen, O’Malley will soon wipe out the remnants of capital punishment in Maryland, an issue on which he lobbied lawmakers from the outset of his first term in 2007. A practicing Catholic, O’Malley argued that executions are not cost-effective, do not deter murders and are at odds with “our values as a people.”
O’Malley’s decision to commute the death sentences comes nearly two years after he persuaded the legislature to repeal capital punishment and three weeks before he will complete his second, and final, term.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/gov-omalley-commutes-sentences-of-marylands-remaining-death-row-inmates/2014/12/31/044b553a-90ff-11e4-a412-4b735edc7175_story.htmlYay.
