Welcome La Plata high students

On Friday, more than 100 students from La Plata High had their annual freshmen government trip to the state capitol and also made the papers.  Local Maryland Independent reporter Alan Brody attended their meeting with Charles County legislators.  I am glad that the students were up on current events and current legislation, such as the repeal of the death penalty supported by Governor O’Malley.

My views on capital punishment are well known – I am personally against the death penalty.  This year the House of Delegates was not asked to vote on any bill that would decide if Maryland had a death penalty or not.  We were asked to vote on one bill that came from the Senate which had been heavily amended and tightened the evidentiary standards to be used in capital punishment cases.  Because this legislation would further tighten the rules and perhaps guard against an innocent person getting the death penalty, I voted for this bill.