The O'Malley Blog

Posted by Web Team on Mar 23, 2009 at 06:26 am

Watch Lt. Gov Brown on MPT

Last week, Lt. Governor Brown appeared on Maryland Public Television to talk about the lives that the two new domestic violence bills will save in future years. Click on the image below to watch the video on the MPT web site.

Posted by Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown on Mar 22, 2009 at 09:31 am

My family and the importance of domestic violence legislation

Last week, Governor O'Malley asked Marylanders to write their legislators about two bills to get firearms out of domestic abusers' hands.

As many of you know, I can personally speak to why it's so important that these measures become law. Last year, my cousin Cathy's estranged boyfriend shot and killed her in her Montgomery Village home. It was a tragedy for my family.

For me and thousands of Marylanders whose families have been touched by domestic violence, the two bills in the current legislative session represent a way to prevent future tragedies.

Our legislation won't bring Cathy back, or any of the other victims of fatal domestic disputes. But they'll go a long way toward preventing future tragedies from happening.

Because of your efforts, the House of Delegates passed these two bills to prevent domestic violence. Thank you for your courage and commitment. The bills will be considered by the State Senate this week.

Posted by Governor Martin O'Malley on Mar 03, 2009 at 09:01 am

The death penalty doesn’t prevent crime

As you know, the State Senate will vote today on whether to replace the death penalty in our state with life imprisonment without parole. Before they do, I think it's important to address why repealing the death penalty can make Maryland a safer state. I've spent my whole career -- as mayor of Baltimore, and now as governor -- working with Maryland communities to make our streets safer. I can assure you that we will continue to build on these public-safety victories and that repealing the death penalty will not undo these successes.

Consider what we've achieved together: Reducing violent crime in Baltimore by 40%. Achieving last year the second-largest drop in homicides that our state has seen in nearly 25 years. Moving down four slots on a nationwide ranking tracking violence in the states. All these advances in public safety enabled us to save 66 lives last year, according to the most reliable estimates.

What changed in those years? What made it possible for us to reduce crime throughout Maryland?

It was our state and local partnerships to protect our communities; our police departments' ingenuity and innovation; and our forensic experts' expansions in DNA fingerprinting. It was, in short, our resolve to work together to fight violence and fear with collective strength and smart crime prevention policies.

The death penalty didn't save those lives -- we did.

The death penalty was on the books the whole time and was not a deterrent in any way. In fact, according to the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment, the cost to taxpayers of pursuing a capital punishment conviction is three times as much as the cost of pursuing a non-death penalty homicide conviction.

In other words, the death penalty is ineffective, costly and potentially takes resources away from other crime-fighting programs.

Please write to your legislators now and ask them to put an end to the death penalty:

http://www.martinomalley.com/deathpenalty

With your help, we'll continue the fight to make Maryland safer. That means continuing to invest in tough crime prevention -- not failed, costly policies that do nothing to protect the people of our state from crime.