| To: lisa.gladden@senate.state.md.us
I will be back to you Monday afternoon with what we can round up for you.on the history/origins of Substitute Motions and the early history of the debate on capital punishment in Maryland.
I know you have seen the Wikipedia article on the Death Penalty in Maryland,
Wikipedia Article
, but it does provide a very good synopsis of its history.
In debate you might want to quote from the other side of the aisle (Governor Agnew). Agnew was known as a hard liner, but was actively opposed to the death penalty and provides some history in his statement presenting his views:
AOMOL
STATEMENT ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
October 10, 1967
Since taking office last January 25th, I have given intensive and
careful deliberation to the question: Should capital punishment be
abolished in Maryland?
It had been my initial thought that I would appoint a committee
of penal experts and distinguished citizens to study the subject and
make recommendations. But I find it has been studied exhaustively,
and there is nothing new to be gained through a retracing of the
same ground. Most penal experts are in agreement that the death
penalty is NOT a deterrent to crime, and factual information from
previous studies is still valid.
The last formal study of capital punishment conducted for the
State was in 1962 by a special committee appointed by the Legislative
Council and headed by Ralph G. Murdy. This committee held ex-
tensive public hearings, compiled a considerable amount of factual
data and recommended, by a vote of 5 to 2, that capital punishment
be abolished in Maryland.
At present, Maryland permits the death penalty for six offenses:
first degree murder, rape, statutory rape, assault with intent to commit
rape, kidnapping, kidnapping of a child under 16. In none of these
is the death penalty mandatory; and in several cases, the sentence
ranges from 18 months or two years to death.
There presently are 21 convicts under sentence of death in this
State. The average length of time that each has been under the death
penalty is four years and eight months. In 1935 there were 199 execu-
tions throughout the United States. Last year there was but one!
Maryland has executed only four persons since 1956; the last was six
years ago, in 1961.
I will recommend to the 1968 session of the Maryland General As-
sembly that the death penalty be abolished, with one exception: the
commission of murder by a person who already is serving life sentence
without possibility of parole.
Ed
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