ANNAPOLIS, MD - Intense debate heated things up in the State House with the Maryland Senate weighing a repeal of the death penalty.

The majority of western Maryland senators want to keep capital punishment intact.

Senator David Brinkley presented two of the 13 amendments on the bill. All of the amendments failed. Brinkley's amendments would have allowed capital punishment for serial killers and required the governor to commute the sentences of those on death row if the bill passed.

"What he's [O'Malley] doing is he's just trying to pander so that he can win election for president in Iowa in 2016, and the fact is he's trying to pander again to the left and the Democrat party," says Brinkley, (R) - Frederick County.

"Every amendment was a way to try and not end the death penalty, and they were very well planned and staged," says Sen. Ron Young, (D) - Washington and Frederick Counties.

Western Maryland Senators George Edwards, Chris Shank, and David Brinkley are against repealing the death penalty.

"To repeal the death penalty, in my estimation, is not a good move for Maryland. There was to be that ultimate action that's reserved for those horrible crimes, but then the other factor is having the death penalty on the books providing prosecutors a tool," says Shank, (R) - Washington County.

"When we hear the stories and the atrocities of what those individuals did, there are truly monsters among us," Brinkley says. "Therefore, I do think Maryland does need to keep the death penalty in place."

"The North Branch is where they keep the badest of the bad, those on death row, life without parole, and the lifers go go there. I know a lot of people who work there, and they keep their eyes on those people more than other people because what do they have to lose," says Sen. George Edwards, (R) - Garrett, Allegany, and Washington Counties.

Young plans to vote for a repeal of the death penalty.

"I think those people should be locked up in a manner with very few privileges where they can never do anything again, and I think life in prison without parole is a very slow death penalty," Young says.

Young says he expects the bill to narrowly pass the senate. It would then head to the Maryland House of Delegates.

The senate is expected to vote on the bill Wednesday. You can read it by clicking here.

Maryland would become the 18th state in the nation to ban the death penalty.