Maryland governor seeks to abolish death penalty

The governor of the eastern US state of Maryland said Tuesday he will present a bill to abolish the death penalty.

If the legislation passes, Maryland would become the 18th state in America to do away with capital punishment. The bill will be formally presented next week.

Governor Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, said pursuing a capital case is three times as expensive as pursuing a non-death penalty homicide conviction and that the punishment does not deter crime.

“Every dollar we spend on an ineffective death penalty is a dollar we’re not spending on crime-fighting tools that actually work,” O’Malley told a news conference organized by the NAACP, a venerable advocacy group for African-Americans.

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