by Matt Clarke

On April 25, 2012, Connecticut Governor Daniel P. Malloy signed into law legislation that eliminates the death penalty for future crimes and replaces it with life without parole – part of a trend to abolish capital punishment. [See: PLN, June 2012, p.16].

The signing took place behind closed doors, without fanfare or media and with only about 30 guests attending. The mood was somber and reflective.

The bill had cleared both chambers of the General Assembly earlier in April. However, the signing took place on the same day that a poll was released showing a majority of Connecticut's citizens still favor the death penalty. It also showed that opinion was evenly split when people were asked to choose between life without parole and death as the punishment for murder.

"Lawmakers in Connecticut finally saw the death penalty for what it is – a barbaric and irreversible punishment that does nothing to stop crime or support its victims," said Amnesty International USA executive director Suzanne Nossel.

Malloy explained his evolution in thinking about the death penalty.

"As a young man, I was a death penalty supporter. Then I spent years as a prosecutor and pursued dangerous felons in court, including murderers," he said. "In the trenches of a criminal courtroom, I learned firsthand that our system of justice is very imperfect. While it's a good system designed with the highest ideals of our democratic society in mind, like most human experience, it is subject to the fallibility of those who participate in it," explaining that he saw criminal defendants who had inadequate attorneys, were wrongly accused, were mistakenly identified, or were discriminated against. "In bearing witness to those things, I came to believe that doing away with the death penalty was the only way to ensure it would not be unfairly imposed."

"I signed legislation that will, effective today, replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of release as the highest form of legal punishment in Connecticut," said Malloy after the signing ceremony. "Although it is an historic moment – Connecticut joins 16 other states and the rest of the industrialized world by taking this action – it is a moment for sober reflection, not celebration."

The legislation's supporters credited families of murder victims with helping get the legislation passed. Gail Canzano, whose brother was murdered, took part in the signing ceremony.

"This was one of the finest moments of my life," said Canzano, who is a member of a group of murder victims' family members who have been pressing for the legislation's passage for eight years. "It was a long, hard road."

Capital punishment had been a part of Connecticut's history since Colonial times, including executions for witchcraft and incest up until sometime in the 17th century. The last female executed in Connecticut was twelve-year-old Hannah Occuish in 1786. The last male was Michael Ross in 2005. The last execution preceding Ross was Joseph Taborsky in 1960.

It was revealed that the Connecticut Correction Department spent over $27,000 in 2011 flying employees to Texas and Indiana to witness an execution and train them on how to conduct lethal injections.

Sources: Hartford Courant; www.correctionsone.com

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