FIRST ILLINOIS, NOW MARYLAND.

Maryland 2nd State to Ban Executions

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Saying he supports the death penalty but wants to make sure it's fairly applied, Gov. Parris Glendening has banned executions during his final eight months in office, making Maryland the second state with such a moratorium.

Glendening said Thursday that he would suspend all executions while a study is done on whether capital punishment is meted out in a racially discriminatory way. In announcing the moratorium, Glendening blocked next week's lethal injection of 44-year-old Wesley Baker.

Nine of the 13 men on Maryland's death row are black and many of the victims were white. Glendening also noted that nine of the men on death row were convicted in Baltimore County, and said: "Use of the death penalty ought not to be a lottery of geography."

Since capital punishment was re-established in 1976, Maryland has executed three men, two of them black, in the murders of three people, all white.

About 3,700 people are on death row for crimes committed in the 38 states with the death penalty.