4 Former Md. Death Row Inmates Could Get Medium Security
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- Maryland's four remaining death-row inmates would become eligible for transfer to medium-security prisons after Gov. Martin O'Malley signs executive orders commuting their sentences to life without parole.
They would lose their guarantee of single-bed cells, however. State prison agency spokesman Gerard Shields says some inmates prefer to have no cellmate.
All four men are housed at the maximum-security North Branch Correctional Institution near Cumberland.
Shields says that except for the requirements that they be kept in maximum security and housed in single cells, Maryland death-row inmates have no more restrictions than the prison's other approximately 1,300 inmates.
The Democratic governor said Wednesday he will commute their sentences before he leaves office Jan. 21. The administration formally began the process Monday by publishing a notice in The Daily Record newspaper.
