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MD. Court rejects delay of execution

Maryland's highest court yesterday rejected a request to delay the execution of condemned killer Steven Oken, who is scheduled to become the first person executed in the state since a moratorium on the death penalty was lifted last year.  Former Gov. Parris N. Glendening, a Democrat, ordered the moratorium in May 2002 and commissioned a University of Maryland report on the fairness of the distribution of the death penalty in the state. But Governor Ehrlich, a Republican, lifted the moratorium after he took office in January 2003, promising to review each application of the death penalty on a case-by-case basis. [more]