The Irish Times re[orts that governor of Connecticut has abolished the death penalty in all
future cases. This move means that 17 US states no longer have the death penalty as a judicial option.
Gov. Dannel Malloy signed the legislation without fanfare behind closed doors. Connecticut joins 16 other states and the District of Columbia that do not allow capital punishment. Illinois, New Mexico and New Jersey all voted to abolish the death penalty in recent years, and New York's death penalty law was declared unconstitutional in 2004.
However the repeal in Connecticut applies only to future sentences, and the 11 men on its death row now still face execution. However some legal experts have said defence attorneys could use the repeal measure to win life sentences for those inmates.
Other state legislatures are considering bills to abolish the death penalty, and Oregon's governor has said he would halt all executions on his watch.
A repeal measure has qualified for the ballot in California, home to nearly a quarter of the nation's death row inmates.
Connecticut has executed only one person, in 2005, since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Calling capital punishment "one of the most compelling and vexing issues of our time," the governor said he came to oppose capital punishment while working as a prosecutor. "I learned firsthand that our system of justice is very imperfect. I came to believe that doing away with the death penalty was the only way to ensure it would not be unfairly imposed... The people of this state pay for appeal after appeal, and then watch time and again as defendants are marched in front of the cameras, giving them a platform of public attention they don't deserve," he said. "The 11 men currently on death row in Connecticut are far more likely to die of old age than they are to be put to death."
This is good news. and it looks like those on Death Row almost certainly will not be executed either.
Now for the 33 other US states to abolish the death penalty.
Gov. Dannel Malloy signed the legislation without fanfare behind closed doors. Connecticut joins 16 other states and the District of Columbia that do not allow capital punishment. Illinois, New Mexico and New Jersey all voted to abolish the death penalty in recent years, and New York's death penalty law was declared unconstitutional in 2004.
However the repeal in Connecticut applies only to future sentences, and the 11 men on its death row now still face execution. However some legal experts have said defence attorneys could use the repeal measure to win life sentences for those inmates.
Other state legislatures are considering bills to abolish the death penalty, and Oregon's governor has said he would halt all executions on his watch.
A repeal measure has qualified for the ballot in California, home to nearly a quarter of the nation's death row inmates.
Connecticut has executed only one person, in 2005, since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Calling capital punishment "one of the most compelling and vexing issues of our time," the governor said he came to oppose capital punishment while working as a prosecutor. "I learned firsthand that our system of justice is very imperfect. I came to believe that doing away with the death penalty was the only way to ensure it would not be unfairly imposed... The people of this state pay for appeal after appeal, and then watch time and again as defendants are marched in front of the cameras, giving them a platform of public attention they don't deserve," he said. "The 11 men currently on death row in Connecticut are far more likely to die of old age than they are to be put to death."
This is good news. and it looks like those on Death Row almost certainly will not be executed either.
Now for the 33 other US states to abolish the death penalty.
