Death Penalty Debate Today
by CTNewsjunkie Staff | Mar 7, 2011 6:50am
(3) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Courts, Legal, State Capitol
The Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on a bill to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment at 11:30 a.m. today.
After lengthy debate in 2009 a bill that would have abolished the death penalty made it through the House and Senate only to be vetoed by then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell. This year, the bill is supported by a new governor, but even proponents admit it may be a tough sell.
“Some people think that with Dan Malloy taking the governorship this is a done deal, wrap it up, clap your hands it’s over. I think it’s actually going to be tougher than it was the first time,” Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, D-New Haven, said in January. “It’s because of a lot of things. Partially because the case will be so visible at the time when we’re doing the bill.”
Three other bills related to the death penalty are on today’s public hearing agenda, along with an act concerning jurisdiction in homicide cases, an act concerning subpoenas for property, and an act concerning habeas corpus reform.
The case Holder-Winfield is referring to is the prosecution of Joshua Komisarjevsky, one of the parolees charged with murdering a mother and her two daughters in Cheshire back in 2007. Dr. William Petit the sole survivor of that 2007 home invasion and murder sat patiently waiting for his turn to speak and offer his support for the death penalty Monday afternoon.
Previous headlines: Families of Murder Victims Call On Legislature to Abolish Death Penalty
Former Reverend Sees Support For Abolishing Death Penalty
Rell Follows Through With Veto; Maintains Death Penalty
Tags: murder, death penalty, Judiciary Committee
(3) Comments
posted by: THREEFIFTHS | March 7, 2011 11:40am
My question is what if this person kills a Correction Officer or Another Inmate.What do you do with them.
posted by: City Hall Watch | March 7, 2011 2:47pm
This is a waste. This legislation is in search of a problem that doesn’t exist in Connecticut. There are plenty of safe guards so we don’t execute innocent people; we do not have political DAs that need a heavy death penalty rate to win election; we are not like FL or TX; and we hand out the death penalty is so few cases, that when it is applied, it is because the perp is so far beyond the pale of acceptable societal norms, they are not even worth given three squares a day to. Maybe in this hearing Holder-Winfield will provide CONNECTICUT data to support this legislation and not old, tired, rehashed, out of date studies from another state whose practices don’t mirror our own.
posted by: hawkeye | March 7, 2011 4:25pm
Pursuit of the death penalty, has been a long, and frustrating dilemna, that costs state taxpayers an extra bundle of money, so, for mainly, for that reason alone, it should be abolished.
We need to be addressing our lofty, state legal costs, which are a big part of our massive state deficit.
“The state must stop spending money, it does not have, even though, they wave the legal banner, when they do it!”