Maryland Repeals the Death Penalty

On Thursday, Governor Martin O'Malley signed a bill that officially removes the death penalty from Maryland.

In doing so, he made Maryland the eighteenth state to repeal the death penalty.

According to the governor's office, "Maryland has effectively eliminated a policy that is proven not to work. Evidence shows that the death penalty is not a deterrent, it cannot be administered without racial bias, and it costs three times as much as life in prison without parole".

The law will go into effect on October 1.

Currently five men are on the state's death row, but their sentences were not commuted, by the repeal.