Q & A: 1L organizes to abolish the death penalty in Maryland
Katrina Homel | Monday, March 21, 2011 
Christopher Morgan-Riess, 1L, seeks to abolish the MD death penalty.Christopher Morgan-Riess, 1L, organizes and oversees a student-based campaign at the Law Center to repeal the death penalty in Maryland. This student advocacy group of 25 law students is currently circulating a petition to encourage Maryland State Senator Robert Zirkin, a Georgetown Law alum, to commit to an anti-death penalty position. Morgan-Riess sat down with our staff writer to answer discuss his efforts to end the practice of capital punishment.
Q: How did you get involved in this work?
Morgan-Riess: I started working with Ohioans to Stop Executions, and ended up connecting with the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, an umbrella group for state anti-death penalty coalitions. I then met the Director of Amnesty International’s death penalty campaign at a convention, and became the State death penalty abolition coordinator for Ohio. I wanted to stay involved with this issue during law school, and I am currently the Federal and Military Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator with Amnesty International.
Q: How is the anti-death penalty movement progressing in Maryland?
M: The vote on bill to abolish the death penalty will be close. The bill is currently sitting in the Maryland Senate’s judiciary committee, and Senator Zirkin is the swing vote that would allow the bill to emerge from the committee stage. There are currently enough votes in the House and Senate to pass the repeal. A poll revealed that two-third of Maryland citizens want the repeal, and the governor supports abolishment. However, there is concern that officials at the federal level are looking at what is going on in Maryland particularly.
Q: What is Senator Zirkin’s role in the push to pass the death penalty abolition bill?
M: Currently, things are at a standstill with Zirkin. Last year, there was a bill to repeal the death penalty on the floor, but it was amended by Zirkin to be a restriction bill. He is hesitant to push for repeal because he believes the restriction legislation solved the problem of innocents being executed, which is his primary concern with the death penalty.
Q: What are you doing to work towards death penalty abolition in Maryland?
M: We had a great conversation with Zirkin last month, and our group is drafting a letter to pass around at the Law Center to collect student signatures. We want to make him aware as an alum that there are many students here at Georgetown that support the abolition of the death penalty.
Q: Why do you think the death penalty should be repealed in the United States?
M: I approach this issue from a moral standpoint. The state should not have the power to take lives of citizens. I understand that this is not a compelling argument for many, but the death penalty is a fascinating issue – the more you learn, the more wrongs you find. There are grave disparities in the way justice is being served in the states that still utilize the death penalty.
Q: What are the greatest disparities in the sentencing and administration of the death penalty?
M: There are vast geographic disparities that depend a lot on the county in which the case is tried. For example, in Ohio, which is one of the states that most frequently administers the death penalty, the counties surrounding the three major cities (Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus) execute criminals at a much higher rate than the rest of the state, as they are the only counties that can afford to prosecute a capital case. In addition to geographic disparities, there are also significant racial disparities. You are far more likely to get the death penalty if you are a minority killing a white person. Because 90% of capital crimes are tried with a public defender, we see that affluent citizens are not being tried for capital crimes.
Q: Why should Georgetown Law students get involved with the repeal campaign in Maryland?
M: Given that it is a state-by-state battle, each state weighing in will tip the scales of the nation. Participation on the state level on this issue is participation on a national level, and each state that abolishes puts us one step closer to national abolition. Annapolis is only a forty-five minute drive, which works out conveniently for law students who want to be involved.
Q: Do you plan to continue this work throughout your law career?
M: I will continue to work on this issue throughout my career, but do not foresee it being my primary focus. This is a national issue of great importance, and I will remain involved until the work is done. This will always be something I am working on, and something that we are doing as a nation that is just wrong.
Features | tagged capital punishment, death penalty, student organizations
Reader Comments (2)
Chrissy,
This is wonderful. You come across as articulate, reasoned, honest, decisive, ethical. . . .
love,
m
Even if you are the only one who wants to save your troubled marriage you can do it alone once you know what you need to do. So, relax, take a deep breath and let's get started with some things you can do to get started on saving a troubled marriage. vtcdiu vtcdiu - muska supra shoes.