BEL AIR, Md (Reuters) ? The first defendant to test Maryland's new death penalty statute, a man convicted of killing a gas station owner in a murder-for-hire scheme, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole on Wednesday
The jury in Harford County Circuit Court deliberated for six hours before rejecting the prosecution's effort to sentence Walter Bishop Jr., 29, to death under the state's law, adopted in 2009 and considered the most restrictive in the nation.
To be eligible for the death penalty, Maryland's law requires DNA or video evidence linking the defendant to a murder or video of a voluntary interrogation and confession. The jury ruled a video of Bishop confessing to police fulfilled the requirement.
But the jury also took into consideration factors that weighed against a death sentence, the foreman told the court.
The foreman said the panel could not unanimously agree that Bishop was solely responsible for the murder or that he would be a danger to others if he lived. He said the panel also considered Bishop's lack of family support and his substance dependency, and mercy.
During the trial, defense attorneys noted that Bishop was homeless and deep in child support debt for his five children.
The restrictiveness of the state's death penalty law had no effect on the trial outcome, said John Cox, a prosecutor with the Assistant State's Attorney's Office of Baltimore County. He said he respected the jury's decision.
Harun Shabazz, one of Bishop's public defenders, agreed the death penalty law did not affect the outcome.
But he questioned why the state sought the death penalty, noting Bishop had not served previous prison time and was not the only person involved in the killing.
"This was never a capital case," Shabazz said afterward. "The death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst."
Bishop was convicted last month of fatally shooting William Porter in 2010, allegedly at the behest of Porter's wife Karla. She is accused of offering to pay Bishop $9,000 for the murder, is charged with first-degree murder and is awaiting trial.
Bishop showed no reaction when the jury announced his sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Afterward, William Porter's mother, Margaret, declined to say whether she had hoped for the death sentence. "You couldn't find a finer man," she said of her 47-year-old son.
On Tuesday, a teary-eyed Bishop apologized in court to the jury and the Porter family for putting them through the ordeal.
"Every morning when I wake up, I relive the events of March 1," Bishop said. "It haunts me while I'm asleep, it haunts me when I'm awake."
The case involved a judge and prosecutors from Baltimore County but moved to Harford County due to pretrial publicity.
In the sentencing phase, the jury must unanimously agree to a death sentence. If not, it must agree unanimously to a sentence of life in prison without parole. Failing that, the default sentence is life with the possibility of parole.
Bishop could be eligible for parole in about 50 years.
Karla Porter, who allegedly ordered the murder because her husband was abusive, faces trial in the spring.
Five people have been executed in Maryland since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center. Five people are on death row there.
After Illinois abolished its similarly restrictive death penalty law this year, Maryland's became the most restrictive, said Richard Dieter, the center's executive director.
(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Jerry Norton)
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