US state moves to abolish death penalty MARYLAND, which has not executed anyone since 2005, is set to abolish the death penalty for good within days, becoming the 18th US state to do so. A bill proposed by Governor Martin O'Malley to end capital punishment passed the state senate on Wednesday, and the measure is widely tipped to also clear the house of representatives, where Democrats, who favour the bill, have a large majority. Maryland has had capital punishment in place since 1638, when it was still a British colony. Today, just five inmates remain on death row in the state that borders the US capital, and their executions seem unlikely to take place. "Let's fight crime with strategies that work and end this expensive, ineffective and unfair practice," O'Malley said on Twitter, minutes after the vote. For Kirk Bloodsworth of the anti-death penalty Witness to Innocence group, the Maryland repeal is a major win. In 1984, at just 23 years old, Bloodsworth became "the most hated man in Maryland," accused of the rape and brutal murder of a nine-year-old girl. He was sentenced to death. But nearly a decade later, DNA evidence proved his innocence - the first ever case of DNA exoneration in the US. I spent nine years in prison with some of the five death row inmates. I cannot imagine how they're feeling at the moment, but we've been waiting for this for so long," Bloodsworth said. Their fate is in the hands of O'Malley, who said he would decide each of the cases "as they ripen." Death Penalty Information Centre executive director Richard Dieter said he expected O'Malley to rule against executing the remaining prisoners. There is a precedent - Illinois' Democratic governor, Pat Quinn, did just that for his state's 15 remaining death row inmates as he signed a repeal into law.