Governor Commutes Death Sentence

In a victory for death penalty opponents, Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening commuted the sentence of a death row inmate to life without parole, saying he was not certain of the man’s guilt. Eugene Colvin-El, convicted of stabbing Lena Buckman 28 times with a kitchen knife on her 82nd birthday in 1980, had exhausted his court appeals and was to die by lethal injection next week. But death penalty opponents around the world stepped up a campaign to prevent the execution . They maintain that Colvin-El, 55, was convicted on circumstantial evidence including a fingerprint discovered outside the Pikesville home where Buckman died during a robbery.