Big death penalty doings in Maryland

Big death penalty doings in Maryland

As detailed in two posts over at ODPI here and here, the nationwide death penalty buzz has gotten especially loud in Maryland. One post suggests that Maryland's Governor-elect Martin O'Malley might be prepared to try to move the state away from capital punishment. And, as if on cue, today the Maryland Court of Appeals (the state's highest court) in a 171-page opinion in Evans v. Maryland is (available here)orders state prison officials to conduct a review of the Maryland lethal-injection protocol in a forum open to public input.

Here is the key part of the ruling in Evans:

We shall find merit in the second aspect of Evans's complaint in No . 122, but no merit in any of his other complaints. Evans is not entitled to a new sentencing proceeding or to a new trial, but that part of the DOC protocol that directs the manner of administering the lethal injection is ineffective until either (1) it is adopted as a regulation in accordance with the Administrative Procedure A ct, or (2) the Legislature exempts it from the requirements of that Act.