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Maryland's outgoing Gov. Martin O'Malley announced Dec. 31 he would commute the death sentences of the last four inmates on the state's death row to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. In 2013, Maryland's General Assembly repealed capital punishment, but that did not affect the sentences of what at the time were five inmates on death row. One of those inmates, John Booth-El, died of natural causes earlier in 2014. The state's last execution was in 2005. The action was lauded by the Maryland Catholic Conference, which has long advocated for the end of capital punishment. O'Malley, a Catholic whose second term as governor ends Jan. 21, said in a statement that recent appeals and an opinion by outgoing Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler have called into question the legality of carrying out those earlier death sentences. "I have now met or spoken with many of the survivors of the victims of these brutal murders," said O'Malley's statement. "They are all good and decent people who have generously granted me the courtesy of discussing the cases of their individual family members."

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