Next week, Chairman Civiletti and the Members of the Capital Punishment Commission will hold the first in a series of public hearings with regard to the status of capital punishment in the State of Maryland. Each hearing will address one specific topic with regard to capital punishment.

The meeting on Monday, July 28, from 3 to 7 p.m. will address Capital Punishment Statistics: Racial, Jurisdictional, and Socio-Economic Disparities. The meetings will take place in the Joint Hearing Room of the Legislative Services Building in Annapolis.

The first portion of each public hearing shall be reserved for testimony from invited experts.  Each expert will be given 15 minutes to present their oral testimony.  Written submissions from expert witnesses would be appreciated a week in advance.  The Commissioners will have approximately 15 minutes collectively to question the expert.  The Commission Staff welcomes suggestions by any member of the Commission regarding experts to be invited.

Public testimony will begin immediately following the testimony of any invited experts.  Public testimony shall be limited to 3-5 minutes per person.  The Commissioners will have two to three minutes collectively to question members of the public on their testimony.  The order of public testimony shall be determined by signup starting 30 minutes prior to each meeting at a table immediately outside the Joint Hearing Room.

The Commission shall accept written testimony from any person who wishes to submit it.  If possible, written testimony should be submitted at or prior to the hearing covering the topic most relevant to the topic of the written testimony.  However, the Commission is flexible and will accept testimony on any subject relevant to the Commission’s overall objectives in the interest of being as informed as possible.

An archive of all written and audio materials shall be maintained by the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention’s Statistical Analysis Center.  This archive shall be placed on a publicly accessible website in a timely manner.