Another State Set to Reject the Death Penalty

                Maryland is on the path to becoming the sixth of the United States to reject and outlaw the death penalty. Governor Martin O’Malley has openly and strongly opposed the death penalty, a verdict five men are currently facing in Maryland. To display his determination, O’Malley is pressured to commute the sentences of these men because, though they will not be affected simply by the impending law, this is a power he possesses.

The death penalty as a whole is often regarded as a sign of cruelty, reserved only for those the law determines to deserve death. But this is a black and white verdict for a very gray-scaled situation. The penalty is “an inherently irreversible and inhumane punishment”; it cannot be reneged, as is the case for many other punishments. Once committed, a person faces only death.

I personally have always believed the death penalty to be extremely cruel and only necessary or acceptable in few circumstances. Though the numbers of those served this penalty have decreased, it is still administered to about forty-three prisoners a year. The alternative to the death penalty is a lifetime prison sentence without the possibility of parole. Personally, I find this to be a more acceptable sentence.

Though the law is in place for a reason, I do not believe it should have the power to condemn people to death. Though this is the punishment reserved for murderers, it seems far too cruel in an “eye-for-an-eye” sense.

In the end, it seems Maryland is following in what is hoped to continue as a succession of outlaws of the death penalty. Perhaps, in the future, more states will follow in banning this “inhumane punishment.”

http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/03/15/us-maryland-expected-abolish-death-penalty