Maryland Senator To Propose Capital Punishment Bill In 2018

BEL AIR, MD – A Maryland lawmaker is proposing bringing back the death penalty. Senator Robert G. Cassilly announced at a press conference Monday afternoon that he plans to ask the Maryland General Assembly to restore the option of capital punishment during the 2018 legislative session.

"There's got to be a penalty that says, 'Look, you've killed; now it can actually get a whole lot worse from this [if you re-offend] because we will hold your life over your head," Cassilly said.

"I know we've been through the capital punishment bill a number of times in this state, but we've seen around the country what happened in Las Vegas, we've seen this happen too many times," Cassilly said.

The death penalty in Maryland was repealed in 2013 under the administration of then Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Cassilly advocated for restoring the death penalty five days after a shooting in a Maryland business park that left three dead and two injured. Authorities said five people were gunned down by their co-worker at Advanced Granite Solutions in the Emmorton Business Park in Edgewood before the suspect – Radee Prince, 37 – allegedly drove to Delaware and shot an acquaintance, who survived.

Prince is being held in Delaware on $2.1 million bond.

State's Attorney Joseph Cassilly, who is the senator's brother, said that Prince would be tried in Delaware before his case is heard in Maryland, in part because that state offers a sentence of life without parole.

In Maryland, if someone is convicted of murder, there is the possibility that the offender will be released.

"Maryland needs to have an alternative punishment that really deals justice in this kind of case where someone kills totally cold-blooded and keeps on killing," Senator Cassilly said. "This is outrageous."

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Senator Cassilly, sitting next to Sheriff Jefffrey Gahler at Monday's press conference, recalled that in February 2016, two Harford County deputies were killed while investigating a report of a wanted person.

That deadly encounter occurred near a shopping center in Abingdon, about 1.5 miles from the scene of Wednesday's mass shooting in Edgewood, he said.

"We dealt with the two deputies a year and a half ago, just a mile and a half away," Senator Cassilly said.

"Once the guy shot the first deputy, it was open season; he kept on firing and took the second deputy down. And now we're here...we're back in the same predicament, only this guy was better at perfecting his escape," Senator Cassilly added.

The gunman in the deputy deaths was killed in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement shortly after the shootings in Abingdon.

The suspect in the Edgewood case is believed to have eluded police for about 10 hours, crossing state lines and shooting a sixth person after five victims were shot in Maryland.

Senator Cassilly called the idea that killers could continue killing "perverse" and "outrageous," and echoed the frustration the state's attorney voiced over the alleged lack of severity in Maryland's sentencing laws.

"It's just outrageous that we as citizens of the state of Maryland are unable, as you heard the state's attorney state," Senator Cassilly said: "...to extract appropriate justice for such a heinous act."

He is proposing that capital punishment be reinstated, with death by lethal injection.

The injection would be a combination of heroin and fentanyl, he said, to counter the argument by opponents of lethal injection due to pain.

"What we've seen is a mix of heroin and fentanyl obviously must not be too painful," Senator Cassilly said, "because we see people pumped up with [the antidote] Narcan on the verge of death, probably practically dead...they turn back around and they want to do [heroin and fentanyl] again."

His brother added that the choice of lethal injection substances was also intended to send a message.

"When the state of Maryland classifies one of the biggest killers out there of people [as opioids]" and we "make sure it's our execution drug," State's Attorney Cassilly said, "that's a point to be taken about how deadly that combination is."

The Maryland General Assembly will convene Jan. 10, 2018, in Annapolis.

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Still from Harford County Sheriff's Office video of the Oct. 23 press conference via Periscope. Pictured are from left, State's Attorney Joseph Cassilly, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler and Maryland Senator Robert Cassilly. Map of deadly shooting locations via Google satellite.