Public Defense

CT lege abolishes death penalty; veto next?

By Gideon

After an excruciatingly long 11-hour debate that was peppered with vacuousness, cherry-picking and childhood stories, the CT Senate finally got around to voting on whether the State should abolish the death penalty. This historic vote ended in favor of abolition, but just barely. A 19-17 vote in the wee hours of the morning sends the abolition bill to the Governor’s desk. 6 Democrats [5 really, unless you absolutely want to count Joan Hartley of Waterbury] broke ranks to vote against the bill, but the majority got the one vote they needed from a Republican Senator, who voted for the bill.

Just last week, in a more convincing fashion, the State House of Representatives voted to abolish the death penalty as well. It is now up to one superficially loveable woman to decide whether our State will continue to impose this most barbaric of punishments. Almost anyone who pays any attention in CT agrees that the Governor will most likely veto this bill, having stated her preference for the death penalty ad nauseum over the last few weeks.

But those same people may forget that this isn’t just any Governor we’re talking about. This is the American Idol Governor, who seems to make her decisions based on opinion polls and votes. Well, there couldn’t have been a bigger vote than this. Connecticut’s elected members of the legislature voted a combined 107-73 in favor of abolishing the death penalty. Now she has a much tougher decision than anyone, perhaps including her, imagines. Don’t worry, I’ll help her make that decision in an upcoming post.

Full post as published by A Public Defender on May 22, 2009 (boomark / email).