Death Penalty vote tomorrow -- Contact your state senator now!

March 2, 2009

Dear Friends,

I need your help on a matter of life and death.

On Tuesday, the Maryland State Senate is expected to vote on legislation that would repeal the state's death penalty and replace it with life without parole. It looks like the vote will be close. Please contact your state senator now -- and urge them to repeal the death penalty in Maryland.

As the mayor of Baltimore, I witnessed horrendous crimes that called out for justice. The death penalty was on the books -- and did absolutely nothing to prevent these awful crimes or help us reduce violent crime by 40 percent.

Last year, we came together as One Maryland to achieve the second largest reduction in homicides since 1985. The death penalty was on the books -- and had absolutely nothing to do with that life-saving work. And the death penalty has had nothing to do with our efforts to improve public safety in our communities. It's been done through innovative policing, expanded DNA fingerprinting, and local and state partnerships.

We're continuing to make Maryland safer -- but we don't need an expensive and utterly ineffective death penalty to do it. So will you join with me in contacting your state senator and asking them to repeal the death penalty in Maryland?

Recently the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment found that for every 8.7 Americans sent to death row, one innocent person is exonerated. The Commission also found that the cost to taxpayers of pursuing a capital punishment conviction was three times as much as the cost of pursuing a non-death penalty homicide conviction. During these times of economic crisis, those are funds we could be investing in crime prevention or assisting victims' families.

Good people on both sides disagree about the death penalty -- but I believe it touches the very soul of who we are as a people, and what kind of future we want to leave to our kids.

Please contact your state senator now.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Martin O'Malley

Governor of Maryland