Campaign to End the Death Penalty

October 17, 2003

For Immediate Release
Contact: Michael Stark, 202-271-8014

Activists, death row family members rally against executions in Maryland

What: Rally Against Executions in Maryland
When: Saturday, October 18th at 1 PM
Where: Outside MD's death house (401 E. Madison St., Baltimore, MD)

Over 75 activists, former death row inmates, and family members of death row inmates from across the region will gather to protest Maryland's death row this Saturday. Coming from across the state the group will gather outside Maryland's death house to denounce Governor Ehrlich's refusal to act on the results of last year's University of Maryland study on racism and the death penalty.
The University of Maryland study, commissioned by Governor Glendening, concluded: "Blacks who kill whites are two-and-one-half times more likely to be sentenced to death than are whites who kill whites, three-and-one-half times more likely than are Blacks who kill Blacks, and almost 11 times more likely to be sentenced to death than ‘other’ racial combinations."
Soon after the study was released, Lt. Governor Michael Steele stated to the press that he would organize a panel of experts to examine flaws with Maryland's death penalty and take action. Since then, he has refused to follow through on that promise.
Maryland has been repeatedly singled out by groups like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, ACLU, and Amnesty International as having the highest percentage of minorities on death row in the country. Currently 60% of Maryland's death row are black. Everyone on Maryland's death row (10 inmates) is accused of killing a white victim -- all this in a state where each year over 80% of murder victims are Black.


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