Maryland death penalty repeal bill fails News
Maryland death penalty repeal bill fails

[JURIST] A bill to repeal the Maryland death penalty [JURIST news archive] failed in the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee [official website] Thursday when the committee members tied in a 5-5 vote. Swing vote Sen. Alex X. Mooney (R) [official profile] voted against the bill after unsuccessfully lobbying for an exemption for prisoners who kill again while serving a jail term. Bill sponsor Sen. Lisa A. Gladden (D) [official profile] said that without the Senate's endorsement she will not call for a vote on the bill in the General Assembly [official website].

The bill, which had the support [JURIST report] of Governor Martin O’Malley (D) [official profile], was debated vigorously after the Maryland Court of Appeals [official website] ruled [JURIST report] in December to suspend executions [JURIST report] while it reviewed the state’s lethal injection [JURIST news archive] procedures to determine if they should be adopted as regulations. The moratorium remains in place. The Baltimore Sun has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

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Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky was sentenced to death on November 16, 1849 over his involvement in the progressive Petrashevsky Circle of intellectuals. Dostoevsky and his codefendants were scheduled to be executed on December 22 of that year, but their execution was stayed by Tsar Nicholas I after the execution ritual had been carried out. Dostoevsky was sent to Siberia instead to serve a four-year sentence. Learn more about the mock execution of Dostoevsky.

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