So, Where is Lt. Governor Michael Steele? Republican Failing to Fulfill Campaign Promises about MD Death Penalty

• Lt. Governor Made Campaign Promises to Oppose the Death Penalty and to do something about Racial Bias in Sentencing. He has Done Nothing. 

Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele wants anyone wondering to know that he would carry "buckets of sand, water and dirt" for his boss, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Mr. Steele said he and Mr. Ehrlich remain in perfect tandem as they lead Maryland to a brighter future. And oh yes, the governor is the only man he answers to on issues such as a promised death penalty task force - a pledge the news media has such a way of keeping alive. When Mr. Ehrlich was sworn in as Maryland's top elected official last year, he promised an equal partnership with Mr. Steele. The first African American elected to statewide office, he attracted voters who shared his opposition to the death penalty and abortion. When he lifted a moratorium on the death penalty after taking office, Mr. Ehrlich said Mr. Steele would head a task force to investigate allegations of racial bias in sentencing. Today, Mr. Steele says that plan is still alive, adding with a degree of irritation that he isn't working on a schedule set by the media or by either side on the issue. He's just not giving up any details. "I am not ready to talk about it," Mr. Steele said during an interview last week in his State House office. [more]

• As Md. Execution Looms, Lt. Gov. No Longer Voices Opposition to Death Penalty [more]
• Time for Steele to Stand Up [more]
  

MD's Death Penalty = an Unequal Adminstration of Justice.
According to the findings of a Governor-commissioned death penalty study conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland and released in 2002, Maryland's death penalty system is tainted with racial bias. As a result of the study in May 2002, Maryland Governor Glendening (D) imposed a moratorium on executions [ more] However, after being elected, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) lifted the ban on the death penalty [more]

Major findings of the MD study included:

• Among the entire universe of death eligible cases, defendants who kill white victims are at significantly greater risk of actually receiving a death sentence.
• The probability that a state's attorney will seek the death penalty is 1.6 times higher when the victim is white than for a black homicide victim
• The probability of a defendant in a homicide receiving a death sentence is twice is great if the victim is white.  Thus a state's attorney is more likely to file a capital case and not withdraw the capital charges when the victim is white than when he or she is black
• State's attorneys are less likely to withdraw their decision to seek the death penalty when the victim is white.
• Black defendants accused of killing white victims are more likely than any other racial combination to be sentenced to death.
• The probability of a state's attorney seeking the death penalty is twice as high in a black defendant/white victim case, and 1.7 times higher in a white defendant/white victim case than it is in a black defendant/black victim case.
• In cases where the death penalty is an option, blacks who kill whites are 2.5 times more likely to be sentences to death than whites who kill whites, and 3.5 times more likely than blacks who kill blacks. [more & SEE study]
• The study further concluded that murderers in Baltimore County (majority Black) were 26 times more likely to be sentenced to death than killers in Baltimore and 14 times more likely than murderers in Montgomery County (majority white).
•  Of the 10 people on Maryland's death row, eight were sentenced in Baltimore County, six are African American and all murdered whites. [more]