O'Malley Requests New Execution Rules

Top Corrections Official to Address Issue

Gov. Martin O'Malley directed his public safety and corrections chief yesterday to write new rules governing how lethal injection is carried out in Maryland, potentially paving the way for executions to resume.

Maryland has had an effective moratorium on capital punishment since December 2006, when the Court of Appeals ruled that the state's procedures for lethal injections had not been adopted properly. O'Malley (D), an opponent of capital punishment who backs a repeal, has resisted issuing new regulations.

But efforts to repeal the death penalty have failed for two years running in the General Assembly, although lawmakers reached a compromise this year to create a commission to study whether capital punishment deters crime and is less costly than imprisonment.

O'Malley said the commission and new rules would proceed on separate tracks, with a completion date of December.

"I wish we would arrive at a point where we repeal the death penalty, but I do not have the luxury in this job, or the permission in this job, only to enforce laws that I'm in favor of and that I agree with," O'Malley told reporters yesterday.

With death penalty supporters viewing the commission as likely to recommend a repeal, it is unclear whether the new regulations would take effect. The General Assembly could still resist a repeal.

The move to write new regulations could, however, help insulate O'Malley from criticism from Republicans and some Democrats -- including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) -- that he has been too slow to reissue rules on executions. Some critics have called the commission another delaying tactic.

One Republican leader yesterday called the move to write new rules a "cynical ploy" by O'Malley to eventually move toward a repeal. "Nothing of any significance will result from this," Del. Christopher B. Shank (Washington), minority whip, said of the governor's actions.

O'Malley said he directed Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Gary D. Maynard to begin developing the regulations, which will address the chemical dosages used and other medical aspects of lethal injection.

In its ruling, the Court of Appeals found that Maryland's manual on how to administer lethal injection was not submitted to a joint legislative committee or given a public hearing before it was adopted, as required by state law.

States across the country effectively halted executions last year while the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge from two inmates on death row in Kentucky who contended that lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. But the court upheld Kentucky's method last month.

Maryland has five men on death row. Five prisoners have been put to death in the state since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.