The Maryland Senate rejected by a single vote, 24-23,...

The Maryland Senate rejected by a single vote, 24-23, a bill that would have reinstated a two-year moratorium on the death penalty.
Fourteen Republicans and 10 Democrats, including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., voted against the bill, which was introduced by Baltimore Democrat Ralph M. Hughes and backed unanimously by the state's legislative black caucus.
The bill would have extended a ban on executions until July 2005 to further examine a University of Maryland study that showed racial and geographic biases when prosecuting defendants.
The study, released earlier in 2003, found that prosecutors are more likely to seek the death penalty for cases in which blacks are accused of killing whites. It also found that decisions made by state's attorneys on whether to pursue the death penalty varied widely.
"I am very disappointed," Hughes said after the 24-23 vote. "We were very close on the issue. Had the bill passed, we would have had two years to solve the problems."
Former Gov. Parris N. Glendening, a Democrat, imposed the moratorium in May 2002. But his successor, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., did not renew it when he took office in January, and has promised to veto legislation that would impose such a moratorium.
Hughes said a companion bill in the House, sponsored by Delegate Salima Siler Marriott, Baltimore Democrat, is likely to be withdrawn. He plans to meet with lawmakers and others who support the moratorium to decide on a course of action.
Sen. Sharon Grosfeld, who had argued vigorously for the moratorium, said she believed too many senators voted against the bill because they saw it as a stepping stone toward a repeal of capital punishment.
"In fact, a death penalty moratorium bill should be supported by all death penalty proponents because it will, in the end, take away arguments that there are flaws in the current system," Grosfeld said.
Opponents had argued another moratorium would just delay punishment for murderers. "This is about justice for the families of the victims," said Sen. Nancy Jacobs.
Three people have been executed in Maryland since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978, but as many as seven death row inmates could face execution in the coming months.