Maryland Guv Saves Last Men on Death Row

With just three weeks to go in his term, Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland announced on Wednesday that he will commute the death sentences of the state’s four remaining inmates on death row. The four men will now serve life without parole. They are Vernon Evans, Anthony Grandison, Jody Lee Miles, and Heath Burch. Maryland abolished the death penalty for future offenders in 2012. “The question at hand is whether any public good is served by allowing these essentially un-executable sentences to stand,” O’Malley said. “In my judgment, leaving these death sentences in place does not serve the public good of the people of Maryland—present or future.”