Politics & Government

Death Penalty Opponents Hope for Repeal Soon

Ben Jones, executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty, provided a legislative update on Monday at the library.

With the brutal Cheshire home invasion murders continuing to make national headlines and an accused double murderer facing lethal injection, opponents of capital punishment hope that the death penalty will be abolished in Connecticut later this year. In 2009, former Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s veto was the only thing that prevented legislation from ending executions.

“The system is broken in Connecticut. No one is winning under the current death penalty system because the way the system operates,” said Ben Jones, executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty (CNADP).

There are two state bills being considered in committee. One would abolish the death penalty outright, retroactively sending current death row inmates to prison for life. The other bill keeps those inmates on death row, but abolishes future capital punishment convictions.

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Jones was at the Westport Public Library on Monday to provide a legislative update in conjunction with the League of Women Voters of Connecticut. He thinks that the issue could be voted on in the late spring.

He cited the legal costs of keeping someone on death row and the potential for wrongful convictions as chief reasons for supporting the death penalty’s repeal.

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“It’s one thing to favor the death penalty philosophically, to not have a problem executing individuals who are guilty of murder,” Jones said. “It’s another thing to give the state that power and trust it to be able to carry it without error because if we want to have the death penalty, it has to be perfect. There can’t be any room for error considering what is at stake.”

In 2009, both the Senate and the House of Represenatives passed legislation ending the death penalty, but the law was vetoed by former Gov. M. Jodi Rell. Current Gov. Dannel Malloy opposes the death penalty, providing a prime opportunity for anti-capital punishment legislation to become a reality.

While legislators seem to favor ending executions, a recent Quinnipiac Poll showed support for the death penalty at a new high, with 67 percent in favor. Only one person has been executed in Connecticut in 50 years.

Westport state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-136, was not in office during the 2009 vote, but he said he would vote in favor of ending the death penalty now.

“Pure and simply, innocent people get killed," Steinberg told Patch. "I think that as much as I hate putting people away for life and it’s not a great answer in itself, the death penalty has to be repealed."

State Sen. Toni Boucher, R-26, voted against the 2009 legislation, but said that her mind is not made up if a similar bill arises this legislative session.

“I would like to talk to more people in the community about it and also to law enforcement,” she told Patch. “It’s something they both have to consider.”

There are ten men on death row, including Steven Hayes, who was found guilty of killing three people and raping one. His partner in the brutal 2007 Chesire, Conn. home invasion, Joshua Komisarjevsky, is on trial.

Dr. William Petit, the sole survivor of the invasion that left his wife and two daughters dead, has said that the death penalty was justified in this case. His words weigh heavily on Boucher.

“If there was ever a situation that made a person want to consider a position on [the death penalty], that might have been one,” Boucher said.

The League of Women Voters of Connecticut, and by extension, the Westport League of Women Voters, is in favor of ending the death penalty.

A statement issued by the group says: “Until we achieve the overall strong standards of competency and experience for attorneys dealing with capital cases, sufficient funding for testing and preservation of biological evidence, collection of data and reforms to achieve the validity of testimony by eye witnesses, co-defendants and informants, we believe that the imposition of the death penalty falls disproportionately on a specific class of defendants."

State Rep. Kim Fawcett, D-133, did not return a phone call seeking comment. She voted in favor of ending the death penalty in 2009.


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