Public Defense

CT House passes bill abolishing death penalty

By Gideon

There must be something about this date. May 13 is now host to two significant death penalty events in Connecticut. On May 13, 2005, the State executed Michael Ross, after about a year of wrangling on his part to make it happen. Today, the CT House of Representatives voted 90-56 in favor of a bill abolishing the death penalty.

The debate on the floor of the House spanned 5 hours and had you been watching you would have seen and heard a cornucopia of arguments. Representatives stood up one after another and offered arguments either for or against the bill that ranged from the passionate to the disingenuous to the downright bizarre.

At the end of it, however, only one thing was certain: the great engine that is the abolition movement just turned over and inched slightly forward. The Constitution State is one step closer to making New Hampshire the only state in the expanded Northeast to still have the death penalty.

Of course, there are two obstacles to actual abolition forthcoming: a vote in the State Senate and then the Governor’s desk. My sources haven’t yet given me a sense of whether there are enough votes in the Senate for passage of this bill, but the Governor has already made her feelings known:

“I have always said that I support the death penalty because I do believe that there are some crimes that are so heinous that the death penalty is the only option,” Rell told reporters at the state Capitol complex. “I believe in the death penalty.

Rell dismissed arguments made by opponents.

“I don’t consider it revenge,” Rell said. “It’s justice.”

Of course, her position is likely to change if a QU/UConn poll is released shortly that shows the state’s residents favor abolition (credit for the joke goes to Ryan).

I guess I should mention that the bill is prospective only, but that makes me seem like a wet blanket.

Full post as published by A Public Defender on May 13, 2009 (boomark / email).