CT to repeal the death penalty

[Tender Branson]

Connecticut moves to abolish death penalty

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — After executing just one prisoner in more than 50 years, Connecticut moved Thursday to become the fifth state in five years to do away with the death penalty for good.

But the repeal wouldn't be a lifeline for the state's 11 death row inmates, including two men who killed a woman and two children in a horrifying home invasion supporters touted as a key reason to keep the law on the books. The state Senate debated for hours Thursday about whether the law would reverse those sentences before voting 20-16 to repeal the law.

After the state Senate's 20-16 Thursday vote to repeal the law, the heavily Democratic state House of Representatives is expected to follow with approval within weeks. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, the first Democratic governor elected in two decades, has vowed to sign the same bill vetoed by his Republican predecessor.

The wealthy, liberal state is one of the last in the Northeast to have a death penalty law and would join New Mexico, Illinois, New Jersey and New York as the most recent to outlaw capital punishment. Repeal proposals are also pending in several other states including Kansas and Kentucky, while an initiative to end the death penalty goes before California voters in November.

Like Connecticut, states that have recently decided to abolish capital punishment were among those that in practice rarely executed inmates. New Jersey, for example, hasn't executed anyone in more than 40 years; Connecticut's death row population is more than seven times below the national average.

Death sentences and executions are also plummeting around the country as fewer prosecutors push capital punishment cases, often because of new laws that allow life with no possibility of parole as a sentencing option.

The possibility of executing the innocent, driven by the rise of DNA as a tool to exonerate wrongfully convicted defendants, is the biggest overall factor driving states to reconsider capital punishment, said Doug Berman, an Ohio State University law professor.

"That has the most profound and enduring resonance as an argument and one that can never be pushed back," Berman said.

The Senate debate Thursday focused on how the law could affect the state's 11 death row inmates, including the two men sentenced to death for the 2007 home invasion attack in the New Haven suburb of Cheshire. They include two men sentenced to death for killing a woman and her two daughters after tormenting the family for hours in the New Haven suburb of Cheshire. The lone survivor of the attack, Dr. William Petit, successfully lobbied state lawmakers to hold off on repeal last year when one of the killers was still facing trial.

"We believe in the death penalty because we believe it is really the only true, just punishment for certain heinous and depraved murders," Petit said Wednesday. "One thing you never hear the abolitionists talk about is the victims, almost never. The forgotten people. The people who died and can't be here to speak for themselves."

Connecticut would become the 17th state without a death penalty. Executions in the U.S. have declined from a high of 98 in 1999 to 43 last year, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. The number of people sentenced to death each year has also dropped sharply, from 300 a decade ago to 78 last year, he said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j37GxfVJRGcUEVR5BW6bOSc0E0hA?docId=2ae24502dcea44548f2651649fa85f7e

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Let's hope CA follows suit in November.

[Governor Scott]

Woohoo!

[Tender Branson]

The chances that CA voters repeal the death penalty are not too bad actually.

The ballot language will probably include "and replace it with life imprisonment without the chance of parole".

And the latest Field poll shows:

48% life without parole
40% death penalty

http://field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/Rls2393.pdf

And as you can see from the historical poll results, support for life without parole is steadily increasing.

[Cory]

Lame.

[Redalgo]

One more step toward complete abolition in the States! :]

[Grumps]

Lame.

Since they've only used it once in 50 years....lame indeed.  Very PC though.

[ModerateCoward]

Now if we can get Texas to repeal their death penalty.

[greenforest32]

+1. It would be nice if the Governor commuted the sentences of the 11 death row inmates too.

Potentially, California will get rid of the death penalty as Washington upholds gay marriage and legalizes marijuana. I'm getting jealous over here

[RIP Robert H Bork]

Disgusting.

[politicus]

One more step toward complete abolition in the States!

Yes, even if its mostly symbolic

[So the Heroes Fall]

Disgusting.

Now I could take the opportunity to call you a fake Christian.

[Gass3268]

Awesome news! It would be a huge step in the direction of abolishment if California votes it away in the fall. 

[Marokai]

Disgusting.

Really? Not that you disagree with it, not that you think it's ineffectual policy, but the notion of not executing criminals disgusts you? Your morals are f'ed.

[Governor Scott]

Disgusting.

Really? Not that you disagree with it, not that you think it's ineffectual policy, but the notion of not executing criminals disgusts you? Your morals are f'ed.

What's even more hilarious...

[Big Wiggly Style]

Disgusting.

Really? Not that you disagree with it, not that you think it's ineffectual policy, but the notion of not executing criminals disgusts you? Your morals are f'ed.

What's even more hilarious...

No, TC is a LINO.

[crypto-fascist superhero]

I believe officepark's avatar choice is ironic.

[Yelnoc]

Why would support of the death party by so out of step with Libertarianism?

[So the Heroes Fall]

I believe officepark's avatar choice is ironic.

officepark is a hipster?

[Big Wiggly Style]

I believe officepark's avatar choice is ironic.

That brand of irony is nausea-inducing.

[crypto-fascist superhero]

Why would support of the death party by so out of step with Libertarianism?

The death party sounds fun!

In all seriousness, it's because of the possibility of executing an innocent, the granting of the government a legal justification for killing, and that libertarian ethics condone preventative but not retributive justice (inasmuch as they can be separated).

[True Federalist]

+1. It would be nice if the Governor commuted the sentences of the 11 death row inmates too.

He might not be able to.  Commutation is not a power all governors have.

[greenforest32]

+1. It would be nice if the Governor commuted the sentences of the 11 death row inmates too.

He might not be able to.  Commutation is not a power all governors have.

Just looked it up: http://www.cnadp.org/resources/death-penalty-in-connecticut/

CLEMENCY: In Connecticut, the governor does not have the power to grant clemency or commute a death sentence. Only the Board of Pardons and Parole has that authority. The governor’s sole power is to postpone an individual execution for a limited period of time to permit an inmate to seek judicial review or commutation from the Pardons and Parole Board, but the General Assembly can revoke that postponement. The governor lacks the power to order an end to executions.

[pillage the village, trash the scene]

Disgusting.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The chances that CA voters repeal the death penalty are not too bad actually.

The ballot language will probably include "and replace it with life imprisonment without the chance of parole".

And the latest Field poll shows:

48% life without parole
40% death penalty

http://field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/Rls2393.pdf

And as you can see from the historical poll results, support for life without parole is steadily increasing.

That would be an amazing turnabout here in California, seeing as 3 members of the state Supreme Court were rejected by the voters in 1986 for supporting the death penalty. Chief Justice Rose Bird lost by a landslide 67-33 margin. That's the only time members of the Supreme Court were rejected by the voters.

[Vasall des Midas]

You mean "opposing".

California is one of those states that sentences anyone they can get a hold on to death but rarely if ever executes, and thus has a gigantic death row population. Pennsylvania being the crassest case of that.