WASHINGTON: Maryland yesterday became the 18th US state to abolish the death penalty when Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley, an outspoken critic of capital punishment, signed the measure into law.
The death penalty will be replaced by life imprisonment without parole in the eastern US state, which borders the US capital Washington. The European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton quickly issued a statement supporting the move, saying she hoped it would “encourage other US States to follow suit.”
In March, when Maryland state lawmakers voted to end use of the death penalty, O’Malley hailed the development, calling capital punishment a policy “that is proven not to work”. The death penalty has been in use in Maryland since 1638, when the territory was a British colony. Afp
