Writing Life

In a fantastic editorial today, the Baltimore Sun has called for an end to the death penalty in Maryland. A key quote from the short piece is:

There is widespread agreement among law enforcement officials, prosecutors, defense attorneys and legal scholars that capital punishment does not deter crime, that it is unfair, arbitrary and capricious in its application and that it protects the public no better than a life without parole sentence.

I applaud the Sun for their stance.

My only qualification would be to ensure that if this is enacted, the courts and juries continue to put their most earnest efforts into determining guilt or innocence. I’d hate to see an innocent person sentenced to prison without parole almost as much as executing an innocent person.

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley was elected in a deep blue state to be a strong Democratic governor. Sadly, I don’t see him being the progressive he campaigned as. I see a right-leaning centrist fan of policies of the last decade rather than a progressive leader for the 21st Century. Three stories have popped up today that have just made me cringe:

1. O’Malley lets “alcopop” drinks bill pass.
2. O’Malley supports for-profit debt management firms
3. O’Malley moves ahead with death penalty protocols.

Alcopops are flavored malt-liquor drinks that the Maryland Assembly deigned to classify as “just like beer”. O’Malley was lobbied heavily to veto this measure by health advocates and groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Opponents say these drinks are heavily marketed at young folks, especially young women under 21.

He pulled the bill from a signing event once before. This time, he acted as any true Maryland Assembly person would, and let the bill be passed without his actually signing it. O’Malley ingeniously said that his non-signature (which still allows the bill to become law) really means that the Assembly should reconsider alcopops next session. Nice cake and eat it to scenario. (My snide remark re: the Maryland Assembly is derived from this set of posts.)

O’Malley’s support of a bill that will allow for-profit debt management groups to do business in Maryland has drawn the ire of many folks. The idea of making a profit off those most in need of getting their finances under control (to prevent loss of homes, savings and other assets) is detestable and should not have support from someone who claims they’re a progressive leader. To quote from the end of the Sun article (which also covers alcopops):

Consumer advocates said the debt-management legislation would open the industry to companies that prey on consumers while many are facing economic hardships. Proponents said it would give consumers more choice.

The industry has been tarnished by AmeriDebt Inc., a Maryland nonprofit accused of bilking debt-strapped consumers of millions of dollars. AmeriDebt also was affiliated with for-profit companies. Another company, Ascend One Corp., a Columbia-based company accused of abusive practices, lobbied for the bill.

Third, O’Malley has punted on his frequently professed personal and policy opposition to the death penalty. While ordering yet another commission to study the death penalty, he’s pushing ahead with creating new protocols for carry out state-sanctioned murder. He claims that his hands are tied. I think they’re tied since he does not want to spend his precious political capital to bring this barbaric practice to a close in our beloved state.

For US Presidential
* Barack Obama wins Dem nomination
* Democrats win White House
* Rudy Giuliani loses nomination battle

For US Congress
* Eric Massa wins NY-29 seat
* Dems win more Senate seats (a given)
* Dems win more House seats (pretty certain)

For Maryland
* Equality continues to grow for transgendered persons (expanding this)
* Death penalty ban passed by State Assembly
* More progressive tax changes

For Howard County
* End/curtail police taser program after January
* Successful modernization of Downtown Columbia
* Making the county affordable for all who live/work here

For me
* Full-time fiction writing
* Contracts with one House and one Senate candidate
* Continued work with awesome local official

Legislation is at hand, looks likely to pass and will get a signature from Gov. Corzine. With the death penalty pretty much suspended throughout the land due to Supreme Court review of the error-prone lethal injection procedure and new cases of innocents being found while sitting on death row occurring more and more, this is welcome news. Let’s drag America back into the late 20th Century when civilizations across the globe banned this ghastly and useless form of state-sanctioned murder. Let’s put this process behind us, as a state and as a nation.

Maryland, it’s time for you to do the same!

It’s been a busy but ineffective week in Annapolis. The death penalty repeal legislation failed in a state Senate committee vote. What’s interesting is that those who might oppose the death penalty on policy, personal, or fiscal grounds pretty much got to dodge a bullet when this repeal failed. There’s currently a court ordered state moratorium on the death penalty due to a need to update execution procedures. So, elected death penalty opponents can sleep well at night knowing there won’t be a new execution for the foreseeable future, but they also don’t have to worry about voting against the death penalty. A vote against the death penalty would likely be paraded around by fringe right-wing groups calling the vote a vote against victims, police, and law and order.

The House of Delegates said it won’t vote on their own repeal legislation, saying that without a Senate bill or Senate support, there’s no chance of real success. That’s true on one level, but sadly pathetic on the other. A vote in the House would show that there is statewide support for a ban. Without a vote, the next time repeal comes up, those opposed to repeal will point to no vote in the House as showing lack of support for repeal. Come on Delegates, you aren’t the Senate’s lacky. Lead don’t follow.

Perhaps the bullet dodged above by the state Senators came from an assault weapon? The Senate Judicial Proceedings committee deadlocked 5-5 yesterday, effectively killing assault weapon ban legislation for this year. Two Democrats joined with three Republicans to kill the bill, claiming that only law-abiding citizens are harmed. Maryland’s attorney general and the State Police supported the measure but the state Fraternal Order of Police opposed it.

Turning to today and next week, let’s see if the House and Senate can pull together and pass a statewide smoking ban that’s supported by health groups, the governor and many more. It’s time, Maryland.

I’ll start by saying bravo to Gov. O’Malley (D) and the state Delegates and Senators who brought up these bills in their respective chambers. I’m opposed to the death penalty for many reasons. Fundamentally, I don’t believe in the benefit of the state killing someone. It’s not about justice, it’s about vengeance and retribution. The killing of the killer won’t bring back the victim. It just doesn’t work that way.

The death penalty doesn’t serve as a deterrent either. There has been this ultimate sanction, i.e. the death penalty, for crimes for centuries, but crime has not gone down. The amount of crimes in the US has gone up and down, seemingly irrelevant to whether the death penalty was illegal or legal. Further, the death penalty appears to be applied predominately among people of color and the poor. If in one state, one county apples the death penalty for crime X while another county won’t for the same crime, something is wrong. That’s part of why former Gov. Glendening (D) to put a hold on the death penalty in Maryland when he was governor. Under Gov. Ehrlich (R), a study was to be done and was promised before his election, but the study and even the issue didn’t come up until his Lt. Gov., Michael Steele (R), wanted to run for the open U.S. Senate seat.

Now we have a chance to repeal it in Maryland. Here’s coverage in the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun about the debate going on in Annapolis right now. The Post’s Maryland Moment blog had an entry on this issue earlier today.

Some cool stories:

• MD lawmakers consider repealing death penalty. Governor O’Malley says he’d sign it if passed! I’d be very happy to see MD abolish this barbaric practice that doesn’t bring closure to victims’ families; and has been proven, at least in MD, to be applied in a discriminatory manner (based on race, ethnicity and class).
• Howard County wants to rescind laws that prohibit TASERs and arm county police with these portable torture devices that have been shown to cause death in some cases; and appear to be used more indiscriminately since they are advertised as non-lethal so more likely to be used.
• Michael Steele, former leuitenant governor and US Senate candidate, is now going to head up GOPAC
• Hillary or Barack? I don’t know yet! But I’m not interested in Edwards, Biden, Dodd or Kucinich. In an off-year without a real D, I’d be interested in Richardson.
• More on my home town (birth) politics
• Harold Ford, Jr., who lost his bid to go from being a US Congressman to a US Senator in Tennessee, is slated to be the new head of the centrist (some might say sell-out) Democratic Leadership Council (DLC).