The Maryland Catholic Conference sent out one of its "Issue Alerts" yesterday to all Catholics in the Archdioceses of Baltimore and Maryland who subscribe to their email list-serve, urging them to contact their state legislators on behalf of Governor Martin O'Malley's proposal to ban the death penalty in Maryland. Here is a link [1]to the webpage at the MCC.  Fighting the death penalty does not, of course, exhaust the pro-life cause, it does not ennervate it. A society that fights cruelty anywhere is a society more likely to fight cruelty everywhere. This initiative of Gov. O'Malley's deserves support and the MCC is to be commended for being out front on the issue also.