USA - Maryland. Death Penalty Referendum Effort Falls Short

Death Penalty Referendum Effort Falls Short. Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger said today afternoon that the referendum effort collected about 15,000 signatures—well short of the initial 18,579 signatures needed by midnight today to put the death penalty to a referendum vote in 2014. Shellenberger and Washington County Delegate Neil Parrott had launched this petition effort on May 3, one day after Governor Martin O'Malley signed the death penalty repeal into law.