Ire Over O'Malley's Inaction on Executions

Delay of New Rules Forms De Facto Ban

More than six months after Maryland's highest court ordered the state to halt executions, Gov. Martin O'Malley has delayed issuing new rules to allow them to resume, frustrating some prosecutors and lawmakers who say he has a duty to carry out the death penalty law.

The governor says he might wait until next year to give the legislature a second chance to repeal the death penalty. His stance, in effect, blocks executions at a time when six inmates are on death row and has emboldened those lobbying for a repeal, who see the inaction as advancing their cause.

Maryland has had a de facto moratorium on executions since December, when the Court of Appeals ruled that the state's lethal injection procedures had not been properly adopted. O'Malley (D) said in an interview that his administration might not issue regulations allowing executions to resume before the legislature reconvenes in January.

O'Malley opposes the death penalty and sought its repeal during this year's legislative session, which ended in April. Legislation to replace the death penalty with life without parole failed by a single vote in a Senate committee in March, effectively ending debate on the issue for the 90-day session.

"We're studying the issue and looking at the next session and trying to assess the possibility of people changing their minds," O'Malley said. "I think that opinions have shifted somewhat in the General Assembly. . . . What, in essence, we're considering is, 'Should one promulgate regulations for a law that may be on its way out?' "

Several prosecutors interviewed recently argued that the court ruling should have prompted the administration to issue the new regulations. Under Maryland law, those guilty of first-degree murder are eligible for execution if prosecutors can prove at least one of 10 aggravating factors, such as killing a law enforcement officer or committing murder while in prison.

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) said Maryland law does not dictate how quickly regulations must be issued, so the O'Malley administration is under no legal obligation to act now.

But Gansler, a death penalty supporter, added, "The longer we have a death penalty statute on the books but an inability to carry it out, the frustration will undoubtedly mount among prosecutors and families of victims of crime."

Joseph I. Cassilly (R), the state's attorney in Harford County, said: "The governor, who took an oath to uphold the law, needs to do something to put the law into effect. It seems to me, the administration, because of the oath to uphold the law of Maryland, is supposed to get going on this."

Washington County State's Attorney Charles P. Strong Jr. (R), whose office is seeking death for a man charged with killing a prison guard, expressed a similar view, as did Patricia C. Jessamy (D), Baltimore's state's attorney.

O'Malley has also drawn criticism from one of the state's most powerful legislators, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., who said recently that he does not expect the administration to issue regulations, although he believes it should.

"He tends to go with his gut on certain issues, and his mind is firmly made up on this one," Miller (D-Calvert), a death penalty supporter, said of the governor.