What's the Future of the Death Penalty in Maryland?

Dec 26th - 4:03pm

Neal Augenstein, WTOP Radio

ROCKVILLE, Md. - The boxes are stacked high in the State's Attorney's office in Rockville, as outgoing State's Attorney Douglas Gansler prepares for his move to the Attorney General's office in Baltimore.

But when Gansler takes office on Jan. 2, he and incoming Governor Martin O'Malley will have very different views on one polarizing issue

O'Malley has expressed personal opinions that he is against the death penalty. However, Gansler told WTOP he is for the death penalty in "certain circumstances."

"I am personally in favor of the death penalty... in the most egregious of crimes and where I am sure that the person committed the crime," Gansler said.

But a recent ruling by Maryland's highest court temporarily suspended executions in the state, meaning death penalty enforcements may not resume unless O'Malley's administration takes action.

Given O'Malley's personal stance on the issue, he may not immediately choose to intervene.

"If the governor chooses to advocate for a change in our death penalty...that certainly is his prerogative," Gansler said. "The governor may choose to change the law...we can certainly agree to disagree."

In Montgomery County - where Gansler previously served as State's Attorney - prosecutors only sought the death penalty in cases where forensic evidence and a confession proved that the person committed the crimes, Gansler said.

Gansler declined to seek the death penalty in the case of Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammed, saying Maryland's law posed too high of a hurdle.

So will Gansler now make advocating change in the death penalty law a priority when he takes office?

"My only priority in the state of Maryland regarding the death penalty is that if we are going to have a death penalty as we do today, that it is meted out in a fair, race-neutral, socioeconomic-neutral, and gender neutral manner," Gansler said.

When asked if their differing views on the death penalty caused any friction between the two democratic public officials, Gansler said he and O'Malley had "never talked about it."

As State's Attorney, Gansler never secured a death penalty conviction.

Only five people have been executed in Maryland since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978.

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