Today, Maryland became the 18th state to do away with the death penalty. It only has one final step to go through, and that is to get the bill signed by Governor Martin O’Malley, who has given his word that he will do just that.

The change comes at a time when a woman in Arizona, 49-year-old Debra Milke, is going to be rightfully released from death row. In 1990, she was charged with the murder, conspiracy to commit murder, child abuse and kidnapping of her 4-year-old son Christopher. Chief Judge Alex Kozinski claims that Milke never got a fair trial and overturned all of those convictions.

Armando Saldate was the detective who worked on the case. He had a reported history of misconduct, and lying under oath. The jury didn’t know this when they listened to and accepted Saldate’s testimony in court. Saldate lied about what had taken place during an interrogation of Milke and there was no evidence to back up what he claimed she had said, but the jury believe him and Milke was sentenced to death.

Milke was on death row for 22 years. What is your take on Maryland’s ban of the death penalty? Washington State currently allows it. Do you think that we should look into banning it as well, in order to avoid wrongfully killing innocent “criminals”?