As Maryland Circuit Court Judge Steven I. Platt signed a death warrant scheduling the execution of Heath W. Burch for the week of December 6, a Potomac Inc. poll of state residents revealed that only 53% support capital punishment. Burch has been on death row since 1996 and would be the first person since 1953 to be executed for a crime committed in Prince George’s County. Experts predict that his execution would be met with resistance from county residents, 50% of whom oppose capital punishment according to the Potomac Inc. poll. Judge Platt also granted Burch a 30-day stay of execution to provide his attorneys with time to file an appeal that they state will be based on a University of Maryland study that showed death sentences are imposed more often when the victims are white. Burch, a black man, was convicted of murdering an elderly white couple. Earlier in 2004, Maryland carried out the execution of Steven Oken, the first person to be executed by the state since 1998. (The Washington Post, October 22, 2004) See Public Opinion and Race.