Maryland Governor Commutes Death Sentences of Last Prisoners on Death Row

As a number of botched executions in 2014 led to renewed debate about the validity of practices used to carry out the death penalty and the death penalty itself, the governor of Maryland has decided to end the year by commuting the death sentences of the last people on Maryland's death row.

The decision was made in a press release from Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's office. The primary reason for granting the stays is a question of the legality of executing the four people currently on Maryland's death row.

In 2012, the Maryland assembly voted to abolish the death penalty, but at the time of that decision these four individuals were still on death row. Because the death penalty was abolished without any legal provision that explicitly allowed for the execution of the people on death row, the governor believes the state has no legal standing to subject the prisoners to the death penalty.

The governor says this is the view of his own attorney general who warned him that without such legal standing, the death row inmates could perpetually file appeals and postpone their sentence until the Maryland assembly passed a law explicitly allowing for their execution.

O'Malley said, "Gubernatorial inaction - at this point in the legal process - would, in my judgment, needlessly and callously subject survivors, and the people of Maryland, to the ordeal of an endless appeals process, with unpredictable twists and turns, and without any hope of finality or closure."

O'Malley also said, "In my judgment, leaving these death sentences in place does not serve the public good of the people of Maryland"

Those on death row will not be set free or paroled, they will simply have their sentence reduced to life without the possibility of parole.