Bid Fails To Repeal Death Penalty

Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg (D-Baltimore) said he would instead urge O'Malley to establish a commission "so there can be more debate and so we can continue discussion next year." Sen. Lisa A. Gladden (D-Baltimore), the bill's Senate sponsor, said she also supports a commission.

Yesterday's committee votes were the culmination of weeks of drama that had focused largely on a single member of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, Sen. Alex X. Mooney (R-Frederick).

Death penalty opponents, including O'Malley, tried to court the support of Mooney, a conservative Catholic who had shared his ambivalence about the death penalty in media interviews.

"As a philosophy major from Dartmouth College who takes matters of faith seriously, I felt I owed it to myself and to my constituents to research and consider this issue with an open mind," Mooney told colleagues at the outset of yesterday's voting session. "Frankly, there are still many unanswered questions out there and I wish I had more time to think them through."

Mooney then offered a proposed amendment limiting capital punishment to those serving prison terms -- a potential compromise he had discussed with O'Malley and his aides.

Under current Maryland law, those convicted of first-degree murder are eligible for the death penalty if prosecutors can prove at least one of 10 aggravating factors, including committing murder while in prison. Other categories include killing a law-enforcement officer or a kidnapping victim.

"The idea of jail is you don't kill anyone," Mooney said in arguing for his amendment.

Gladden strongly resisted, arguing that a full repeal is needed to address "a broken system."

"You can't be a little bit pregnant, and you can't have a little bit of a repeal," Gladden said.

After Mooney's amendment failed on a 9 to 1 vote, Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery) proposed a year-long study of the issue. That idea was embraced by Mooney but failed on a cliffhanger, 5 to 5 vote, when the panel's chairman voted against it. Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery), said he wanted an up-or-down vote on the full repeal.

One panel member who supports the death penalty, Sen. Nancy Jacobs (R-Harford), was absent yesterday due to an out-of-state emergency. But her presence probably would not have affected the outcome of votes because of her support.

Gladden acknowledged during yesterday's voting session that she probably lacked the votes to pass a full repeal on the Senate floor. But she later expressed her optimism that a full repeal will eventually be realized.

"I do believe a repeal in Maryland is not an if issue, it's a when," Gladden said. "We've moved the dialogue a thousand miles from where we were last year."