The future of death row hangs in the balance, as a new death penalty commission convened for the first time in Annapolis on Monday to consider abolishing executions in Maryland.

The 23-member commission, enacted by the legislature and headed up by former U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, began by considering racial, jurisdictional and socioeconomical disparities among capital punishment cases.

“The entire judicial system presumes a level playing field, but too often justice gets lost in the shuffle. As a result, we have a death penalty that disproportionately impacts the poor, the black and the mentally challenged,” testified David Kaczynski, who turned in the notorious “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski and grappled with the possibility that his mentally ill brother would be executed.

“I had to ask myself what it would be like to go through life with my own brother’s blood on my hands.”

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In Maryland, a black offender who kills a white victim is almost twice as likely to face the death penalty than a white offender, testified Ray Paternoster, a criminology professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, who conducted a death penalty study between 1978 and 1999.

Paternoster also noted invariability across counties, citing Baltimore County, which is 13 times more likely to seek the death penalty than Baltimore City and five times more likely than Montgomery County. The death penalty is 23 percent times more likely to be imposed in Baltimore County than Baltimore City, he said.

“I supported the death penalty until it came knocking on my door,” said Bill Babbitt, who faced the same challenge as David Kaczynski when his schizophrenic brother, Manny Babbitt, committed a murder.

“I had agonized over what to do, and in the end I turned [my brother] in to the police because I couldn’t live with the risk that someone else might become a victim.

“I wanted to prevent another killing — not cause one,” he said in written testimony.

Both men’s brothers suffered mental illnesses, but Kaczynski’s brother received a life sentence without parole and Bill Babbitt’s brother was executed in California in 1999.

Kaczynski said he hopes that sharing their similar stories with drastically different endings would prove that the death penalty is not applied equally.

A wide range of legal experts offered their advice to the commission, including Deborah Poritz, a former chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

A similar commission in New Jersey recommended abolition of executions last year.

The Maryland commission must deliver its recommendations by December.

cpeirce@baltimoreexaminer.com