It was our second meeting of the afternoon on the death penalty bill, which will be debated by the full House tomorrow.

We were reviewing our vote count. Who would vote for the bill and who would oppose all amendments?

We decided to ask six members to speak to the first three amendments, to build momentum for the rejection of all.

For our whip system during the debate, we divided the House floor into groups of four to six members, who sat near each other and had pledged to oppose all amendments.

“Where members sit on the floor seems to be random,” said one of the people around the table.

“Nothing in Annapolis is random,” I replied.