Md. Releases Rules That Could Restart Executions

Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration issued new regulations yesterday that could clear the way for Maryland to resume executions by lethal injection, effectively ending a 2 1/2 -year moratorium on capital punishment.

The regulations were delayed for months while O'Malley (D) pushed unsuccessfully to abolish the death penalty. The General Assembly agreed instead in March to tighten evidence standards in capital cases. The manual, written by corrections officials, must be approved by a 20-member legislative committee that is split between supporters and opponents of capital punishment.

The committee's Senate leader, Paul G. Pinsky (D-Prince George's), a death penalty opponent, said yesterday that he is "in no hurry" to call for a vote.

"We may even put a hold on these," Pinsky said. "At the same time, I know the legislature has spoken."

If the committee, which reviews administration regulations, does not act within a review period of about three months, O'Malley could put the procedures into effect.

"These new regulations mark an important step in ensuring that the death penalty in Maryland is carried out in a manner consistent with state and federal law," O'Malley said in a statement.

The manual is the first public document to lay out execution procedures since Maryland reinstated the death penalty in 1978. The biggest change is that the new regulations require medical personnel who inject the lethal combination of drugs into an inmate's veins to find an alternative to the arms if those veins are too scarred to accept a needle.

The change was prompted by a lawsuit by Vernon L. Evans Jr., who said his arms were so scarred by drug use that he would be harmed when the three lethal drugs were administered. Evans is one of five inmates on Maryland's death row.

Other changes in the manual requested by the state's public defender's office include allowing the corrections chief to grant an inmate's request for a special last meal; allowing the inmate to choose which of his attorneys he wants to witness his execution; and allowing family members to visit as late as three hours before the execution instead of four.

The procedures also prohibit the state from using a medical procedure known as a "cut down" to guide the needle to a hard-to-locate vein. A cut down allows the inmate's skin to be cut, a method used in several states that has been criticized as antiquated and as causing the prisoner pain.

Jane Henderson, executive director of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions, called the document's public release "a step" toward making executions more humane.

"In Maryland it's always been a very secretive process," she said. "Now we can see what they say they're going to do and analyze it carefully."