Maryland - Death Penalty Information Center

History of the Death Penalty

The first exe­cu­tion in Maryland was that of four ser­vants who were hung in 1773 for killing their mas­ter. The death penal­ty was re-eval­u­at­ed in the ear­ly 1800’s, when the state estab­lished degrees of mur­der, allow­ing the death penal­ty only for indi­vid­u­als con­vict­ed of first degree mur­der. The death penal­ty was car­ried out by pub­lic hang­ing until 1913, when hang­ings were moved to a pri­vate space. About 50 years lat­er, the gas cham­ber was briefly used as the pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion, but only 4 indi­vid­u­als were exe­cut­ed that way. In 1994, lethal injec­tion became the pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion, start­ing with John Frederick Thanos, the first per­son to be exe­cut­ed in Maryland since 1961.

Notable Exonerations

Kirk Bloodsworth was the first death row pris­on­er to be exon­er­at­ed based on DNA evi­dence. He was con­vict­ed in 1984 on charges that he had raped and mur­dered a 9‑year old girl. He spent 2 years on death row before being resen­tenced to life in prison. Throughout his almost nine years in prison, he insist­ed that he was ​“an inno­cent man” and signed all of his let­ters with that acronym, ​“A.I.M.” In 1993, Bloodsworth was exon­er­at­ed when DNA test­ing on the semen found on the vic­tim’s cloth­ing exclud­ed him as the killer. When he was released, the state com­pen­sat­ed Bloodsworth $300,000 for the time he spent in prison. The com­pen­sa­tion most­ly went to cov­er legal expenses.

Notable Commutations/​Clemencies

Eugene Colvin-el was sen­tenced to death for the bru­tal mur­der of 82-year old Lena Buckman. After exhaust­ing his appeals process, there was only a month left until his exe­cu­tion was to be car­ried out. Then-Governor Parris Glendening com­mut­ed Colvin’s sen­tence to life in prison with­out parole despite the fact that he was ​“almost cer­tain” that Colvin com­mit­ted the crime. Glendening believed that being ​“almost cer­tain” was not suf­fi­cient to jus­ti­fy a death sentence.

On January 20, 2015, Governor Martin O’Malley com­mut­ed the sen­tences of all four men remain­ing on Maryland’s death row to life in prison. The state’s abo­li­tion bill had not been retroac­tive, leav­ing 5 men under a sen­tence of death. One of the men died of nat­ur­al caus­es before the remain­ing death sen­tences were commuted.

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

In 1987, Maryland passed a law that pro­hib­it­ed juve­lines from being sen­tenced to death and pro­vid­ed the option of life with­out parole for cas­es involv­ing capital crimes.

In 1989, the state passed a pro­vi­sion ban­ning the exe­cu­tion of intel­lec­tu­al­ly disabled individuals.

In 2002, Governor Parris Glendening declared a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. The mora­to­ri­um was lift­ed by his suc­ces­sor, Governor Robert Ehrlich.

In 2009, after near­ly pass­ing abo­li­tion leg­is­la­tion, Maryland insti­tut­ed the tight­est death penal­ty restric­tions in the coun­try. The law lim­it­ed the death penal­ty to cap­i­tal mur­der cas­es with bio­log­i­cal or DNA evi­dence of guilt, a video­taped con­fes­sion, or a video­tape link­ing the defen­dant to a homicide.

Maryland’s leg­is­la­ture passed a death penal­ty repeal bill in March 2013. The bill was signed by Governor Martin O’Malley on May 2, 2013.

Other Interesting Facts

Since 1923, all of the pris­on­ers exe­cut­ed in Maryland have been men.