How much time behind bars is too much time? How harsh should speeding penalties be? When should someone be charged for passing an infection to another, and how best to honor a slain parole officer?
And when will we finally have an officially state mineral?
The answers to those questions and more can be found among the more than 400 new laws that took effect Wednesday in Maryland, the biggest and last group of the 849 bills passed into law in the 2025 General Assembly. As usual, many were years in the making, some were somber and some were silly, and most will likely touch state residents’ lives in one way or another.
A second chance
One of the more emotionally debated bills of the session was the Second Look Act, which is just what its name implies: Under the law, people who have been incarcerated for at least 20 years will be able to petition the court that sentenced them for a reduction in that sentence.
House Bill 853 was sponsored for a second year by Del. Cheryl Pasteur (D-Baltimore County), and co-sponsored by 45 other House members. Opponents argued strongly that people who commit heinous crimes should not be given a second chance, and in a last-minute addition the bill was amended to make it unavailable to those convicted in the murder of a first-responder.
The bill appeared to be in trouble in the Senate,when Sen. Charles Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County) rose to talk about a cousin who was shot and killed in 1991. The victim’s brother, another of Sydnor’s cousins, suddenly died a few years ago, “of a broken heart,” according to family lore.
Sydnor said that if that the man who killed his cousin “did what they needed to do to reenter society, I’d welcome them with open arms.” The bill was based on “grace,” he said.
There are a number of restrictions in the final version, besides the first-responder language. The inmate applying for a sentence had to have been younger than 25 when the crime was committed. The petition will not be available for sex offenders or people sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Inmates can only apply three times, and have to wait three years between each petition if they are turned down. A victim or a victim’s representatives may submit an impact statement to the court, which may impose certain conditions of release “to promote victim safety and peace of mind.”
Geriatric, medical parole also expanded
A related bill would require the Maryland Parole Commission to consider an incarcerated individual’s age or medical condition when weighing a parole request.
HB 1123 was sponsored by Del. J. Sandy Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel) and SB 181 was sponsored by Sen. Shelly Hettleman (D-Baltimore County), who was credited with leading the effort to passage after sponsoring the measure for a fourth year.
During a Senate committee hearing in January, the Parole Commission chair said that only one person had been released on geriatric parole in the last 10 years under the current parole structure.
The new law lets Individuals be released on medical parole if a licensed physician makes certain determinations of a person’s health, such as being chronically debilitated or suffering from a terminal illness. Somone could quality for geriatric parole release if they were at least 65 years old and had served at least 20 years in prison. In addition, that person cannot be a sex offender and must be serving a sentence that comes with the possibility of parole.
The state’s Parole Commission must grant a meeting request for an incarcerated person or that person’s representative under certain circumstances, under the law, which also removes the governor from the medical parole process. Lawmakers removed the governor from the general parole process four years ago, but an oversight at the time allowed him to retain input on medical parole decisions. That authority now goes away.
Decriminalizing HIV
Advocates have been trying since 2013 to repeal what they called an “antiquated” and “discriminatory” law that made it a crime to knowingly pass the human immunodeficiency virus to another person. They finally won this year, when HB 39 and SB 356 passed by overwhelming margins.
The law dated back to 1989, at the outset of the AIDS crisis, when lawmakers said “an individual who has the human immunodeficiency virus may not knowingly transfer or attempt to transfer the … virus to another individual.” Doing so was classified as a misdemeanor offense, punishable by up to $2,500 fine and up to three years in prison.
The bills’ sponsors, Del. Kris Fair (D-Frederick) and Sen. Will Smith (D-Montgomery), said the law may have been intended as a public health measure, but it did not do so in practice. The law was not only contrary to public health, by stigmatizing HIV, they said, but it could also be discriminatory against Black men.
A Williams Institute report last year found that Black men made up 68% of the cases for knowingly transmitting HIV. The charge had only been invoked 148 times in 104 cases since 1989, and only 10% resulted in a guilty verdict, the report said.
Honoring a slain parole officer
The Davis Martinez Public Employee Safety Act, which took effect Wednesday, is named in honor of the Maryland parole officer who was slain last year while checking in on a parolee in Montgomery County, the first parole officer killed in the line of duty in the state.
His death inspired the law, which brings new protections for officers and will provide better oversight of state workplaces.
Martinez was making a routine check on a parolee in Silver Spring on the morning of May 31, 2024, when he was brutally slain in the parolee’s apartment. Martinez’s supervisors did not check on him until well into the evening, after coworkers noticed him missing and expressed concern for his well-being.
Police found Martinez dead with multiple stab wounds at the home of the parolee, Emanuel Edward Sewell, who was arrested a day later in West Virginia and has since been charged with first-degree murder in Martinez’s death.
The law, created under SB 26 and HB 176, sets up a new unit within the Division of Labor and Industry focused on public employee safety and healt, and prompts labor officials to develop standards that address workplace violence. Under the law, the commissioner of Labor and Industry will release a report on the safety and health of employees in public bodies every July and will submit the report to the General Assembly.
Prescription drug board expands – kind of
The state board tasked with bringing down prescription drug costs got expanded authority Wednesday – but the board has to clear some hurdles before it can exercise that authority.
The Prescription Drug Affordability Board was created in 2019 to lower prescription drug costs for those who get health insurance from the state. It has yet to do so for a single drug – a fact that critics in the pharmaceutical industry frequently point out – but lawmakers this year decided to expand the board’s authority to include drugs covered by commercial plans, not just state health plans.
HB 424 and SB 357 require that PDAB expand its cost-saving efforts to the commercial market – but not until one year after the board has successfully brought down costs for two prescription drugs under its current authority.
In July, the board officially determined that two Type 2 diabetes drugs were likely unaffordable for Marylanders and it is currently determining ways to bring those costs down. One method could be through imposition of “upper payment limits,” which cap how much the state is willing to pay for those drugs.
So while the law is on the books, PDAB won’t be able to expand its work into the commercial market for more than a year, as it works this fall on upper payment limits on the first two drugs.
Easing up on building emissions rules
Maryland’s Building Energy Performance Standards program, part of the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022, called for large buildings in the state to electrify over time, and reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, or pay fees. Until this year.
Lawmakers loosened the rules a bit in 2025, exempting hospitals and some manufacturing buildings from emission reduction requirements. The rules apply to buildings over 35,000 square feet, though some specific building types are exempt.
HB 49 also lets building owners take credit for any renewable energy that they generate on-site, such as with rooftop solar panels, and reduce their emissions reduction obligations under the law. It also clarifies that buildings could be exempt from the state rules and reporting requirements in counties that develop a state-approved building emissions program.
The new law also compels the Maryland Department of the Environment to study other potential changes to the policy on large buildings, including setting rules not just for emissions but for energy consumption. That study is to be completed by the end of 2026.
Climate advocates had worried about the changes, but said the final result could have been worse:Broader changes to the rules, including exempting residential buildings, did not advance.
Buildings contributed 16% of Maryland’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, from gas furnaces, water heaters and more. By 2031, the state is committed by law to reducing its overall greenhouse gas emissions 60% from 2006 levels, to reaching net-zero emissions by 2045.
Butterflies on IDs
Also on Wednesday, the Motor Vehicle Administration began issuing drivers licenses with a butterfly symbol above the words “hidden disability” for those with intellectual and development disabilities. The symbols will also be available for state-issued identification cards and even moped licenses.
“Eric’s ID Law” is named after Montgomery County resident Eric Carpenter-Grantham, who has high functioning autism. HB 707 and SB 618 also require the state to advertise the availability of the logo and to have the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission work with State Police and “other interested stakeholders” to develop law enforcement training on interacting with those who have an invisible disability notification.
Carpenter-Grantham and his mother, Linda, are constituents of bils’ lead sponsors, Montgomery County Democrats Sen. William C. Smith Jr. and Del. Jheanelle Wilkins. The Carpenter-Grantham family advocated for the bill that got nationwide attention with appearances last year on Fox’s “Sherri Shephard Show” and ABC’s “The View.” Del. Kym Taylor (D-Prince George’s), another House sponsor, was in the audience of “The View” for the family’s appearance.
Meanwhile, Eric’s ID Law has support from the Communication Workers of America, which is circulating a petition to encourage passage in other states.
Watch your speed
More speed cameras are coming to counties around the state as part of a tranche of bills passed earlier this year.
Baltimore County is authorized to place up to four cameras on the Beltway and another three cameras on Interstate 83. The Maryland Transportation Authority will be able to place the devices on the Intercounty Connector in Montgomery County, with fines collected from the devices going to the authority.
Additional legislation allows Montgomery County to place the speed monitoring devices on highways deemed at high risk for motor vehicle crashes.
Those caught speeding by cameras on Indian Head Highway in Prince George’s County could pay more for putting the pedal to the metal. The tiered fines for the cameras along Route 210 will range from $40 for motorists clocked at 12 to 15 mph over the speed limit up to $425 for those caught driving 40 mph or more above the posted limit.
Among other 400 laws that took effect Wednesday:
- Nearly two dozen bills related to veterans were part of a bipartisan package that was part of a veterans agenda largely pushed by Sen. Bryan Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel), which aim to ensure that veterans can access state health, education, transportation, and other benefits.
- Future governors will be required to either divest themselves of financial interests that conflict with their official duties or put them in a blind trust.
- HB 932, sponsored by Environment and Transportation Committee Chair Marc Korman (D-Montgomery), was passed this session following reports that alleged clients of former Gov. Larry Hogan’s real estate business were awarded lucrative state contracts during his eight years in office.
- Another Korman bill, HB 411, takes effect, making chromite the official state mineral. If that sounds familiar, it’s because SB 764 by Sen. Craig Zucker (D-Montgomery), took effect June 1, making chromite the state mineral but also making orange crush the official state cocktail. Orange crush was added to Zucker’s bill in the House on the last day of the session, after Korman’s bill had passed both chambers.
- The 2026 gubernatorial primary will move from the last Tuesday of June to the fourth Tuesday of the month. SB 645, sponsored by Senate Education, Energy and Environment Committee Vice Chair Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery), and HB 411, sponsored by Wilkins, moved the date to prevent early voting from overlapping with the Juneteenth and Father’s Day observances.