US state of Maryland abolishes death penalty

[Princess Luna]

Maryland has become the eighteenth US state to abolish the death penalty, replacing it with life in prison without parole.

The measure was signed in to law on Thursday by the state's Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley, an outspoken critic of capital punishment.

"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," O'Malley said in a statement.
Kirk Bloodsworth, one-time Maryland death row inmate, attended the crowded ceremony which repealed the law that could have killed him.

Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey met Bloodsworth, who wrongfully served nine years for the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in 1984.

He was the first person in the US to be freed because of DNA evidence after being convicted in a death-penalty case.

After regaining his freedom, Bloodsworth campaigned for the end of the death penalty.

"If it can happen to me it can happen to anyone. I tell them my story, I was a marine with no record," he said.

"I was happy, I killed the thing that almost killed me."

Bloodsworth's case shone a spotlight on the death penalty and what his fate could have been was instrumental in pushing the repeal through.

"It would be too much of a travesty if we executed an innocent person I just couldn’t let that happen, Kirk helped me to understand that," Senator Allan Kittelman told our correspondent.

The bill will not apply to the five men the state has on death row, but the governor can commute their sentences to life without parole.

O'Malley has said he will consider them on a case-by-case basis.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americ...896180295.html

[Skyhilist]

As much as I'm glad they got rid of the death penalty, I don't see how "life in prison without parole" is really going to help. Violent criminals are violent as a result if the material conditions around them. You're not going to keep people safe from this by ruining the life of criminals who only result from the world around them anyways.

[Fionnagáin]

Not that I disagree, but I think that abolishing global capitalism in its entirety probably goes a bit beyond the authority of the Maryland state legislature.

[l'Enfermé]

Well this is too bad

[Brutus]

I'd take death over life imprisonment any day.

[Fionnagáin]

Would you be prepared to let others make that choice for you? That's really more the issue, here.

[bcbm]

Well this is too bad

disgusting

[Dr Doom]

Well this is too bad

your a sick individual bro.

[vizzek]

Well this is too bad

I even dont get why a communist would say something like this. i realize that a lot of angst-ridden lefties like to fetishize revolutionary violence and terror, but it's not often that you see one blatantly supporting the actions of a bourgeois state (especially something like capital punishment). let me guess: you support penal labor too?

[a_wild_MAGIKARP]

Well this is too bad

If it was a dictatorship of the proletariat, it would be, but this is a BOURGEOIS state. Who do you think they'd use the death penalty on during a time of revolution? hmmm.. maybe communists like us!

[bcbm]

If it was a dictatorship of the proletariat, it would be,

disgusting

[Skyhilist]

Death penalty supporter logic: we should kill that guy who killed a guy to stop killings.
Both irrationable and unjustifiable.
Just as two wrongs do not make a right, two deaths do not save a life.

[Quail]

It's nice they've decided not to kill criminals, but then life in prison without parole isn't exactly better. The whole prison system, especially in the US, is really fucked up.

[VDS]

There's no question that it doesn't SOLVE much. As others have stated, the system itself is messed up and criminals are usually so because of the conditions around them.

That being said, it's always a good thing when the state no longer has the power to decide whether or not it wants to do something reactionary and barbaric and kill you.

[Rugged Collectivist]

disgusting (In reply to MAGIKARP)

I would respond to this but I can't understand how someone could come to this conclusion. Elaborate maybe?

[vizzek]

I would respond to this but I can't understand how someone could come to this conclusion. Elaborate maybe?

Capital punishment has no place in communist revolution, the judicial system is a cornerstone of bourgeois society. kangaroo courts and shit aint gonna be in my revolution

[l'Enfermé]

disgusting

Nah, don't be a liberal.

your a sick individual bro.

Your're*

I even dont get why a communist would say something like this. i realize that a lot of angst-ridden lefties like to fetishize revolutionary violence and terror, but it's not often that you see one blatantly supporting the actions of a bourgeois state (especially something like capital punishment). let me guess: you support penal labor too?

Fuck does any of this have to do with "revolutionary violence" or "revolutionary terror" or "angst"? I don't believe that there is such a thing as "revolutionary violence", there is just violence and no violence. "Revolutionary terror" is another stupid idea. The two big famous examples, the Jacobin Terror and the Bolshevik Terror, weren't "revolutionary". The Jacobin Terror was a war measure. The Red Terror was a war measure as well. I live in Europe and I don't foresee a civil war or an external war happening here in response to the proletariat launching a revolution, so this "revolutionary terror" stuff doesn't concern me in the least.

As for why I, a communist, would say something like that, and "blatantly support the actions of a bourgeois state", well, I can gladly explain. I think the state has many useful social functions. Fighting fires, for example, or education, healthcare, whatever. Exacting justice on the likes of first-degree murderers is another one, in my opinion.

And yes, since you asked, I do support penal labour, as a part of a broader punishment-and-rehabilitation process.

If it was a dictatorship of the proletariat, it would be, but this is a BOURGEOIS state. Who do you think they'd use the death penalty on during a time of revolution? hmmm.. maybe communists like us!

That doesn't really make sense.
I) If a communist commits a crime that carries with it a death penalty, like first-degree murder, during a "time of revolution", I would support the sentence being carried out.
II) If there was a revolution, wouldn't that mean that the bourgeois state was dismantled? Who is "they", then?
III) If the bourgeois state is that desperate, do you think it would need legal sanction to kill communists?
There are more flaws in your argument but I'll just stop right here.

[l'Enfermé]

Capital punishment has no place in communist revolution, the judicial system is a cornerstone of bourgeois society. kangaroo courts and shit aint gonna be in my revolution

a) Capital punishment predates bourgeois society by thousands of years, b) capital punishment has been abolished in most of the advanced capitalist countries, so it's not the cornerstone of anything, and c) "my revolution"? Good for you...

[Sam_b]

Great example of a global mod trolling a thread here.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

Great example of a global mod trolling a thread here.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that they actually think this.