Connecticut Supreme Court Overturns Death Penalty

[cal04]

Source: NBC News

Connecticut's highest court has overturned the death penalty in state, saying the sentence is unconstitutional.

The decision Thursday comes out of the appeal from Eduardo Santiago, whose attorneys argue lawmakers improperly passed a death penalty repeal three years ago that only outlawed capital punishment for future crimes.

Santiago was sentenced to lethal injection for the murder-for-hire killing of 45-year-old Joseph Niwinski in West Hartford in 2000. The state Supreme Court ordered a new penalty hearing in 2012, saying the trial judge wrongly withheld key evidence.


That decision came just after lawmakers repealed the death penalty for murders committed after April 24, 2012, leaving Santiago and those on death row still facing the possibility of execution.

Read more: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Connecticut-Death-Penalty-Overturned-Supreme-Court-Unconstitutional-321756632.html

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The ruling by a divided court, 4-3, means the 11 men on the state’s death row would no longer be subject to execution orders. Those inmates include Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes, who were sentenced to die for killing a mother and her two daughters in a 2007 home invasion in Cheshire.

The state had passed a law in April 2012 to repeal the death penalty only for future crimes.

(snip)
Connecticut has had just one execution since 1960. Serial killer Michael Ross was put to death 2005 after winning a legal fight to end his appeals.

http://ktar.com/2015/08/13/connecticuts-top-court-overturns-death-penalty-in-state/

[ladjf]

1. Way to go! nt

[dbackjon]

2. Great news for our Country!

[George II]

3. I was hoping this would happen. Governor Malloy got it started....

....by campaigning against the death penalty when he ran for Governor the first time, and threw the people a bone saying that he thought those already condemned should remain on death row. The death penalty was repealed a year or so after he took office. I think he knew that ultimately those on death row would never be executed, and as of today that's the case.

Good for him, good for the Supreme Court, and good for the state of Connecticut.

[George II]

5. Why Baltimore. You realize that Malloy is Governor of Connecticut, right?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Not only that, the opinion attacked the core positions underlying the death penalty itself.

http://news.yahoo.com/connecticuts-top-court-overturns-death-penalty-state-153946637.html

The Connecticut Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling, agreed with his position, ruling that the death penalty "no longer comports with contemporary standards of decency and no longer serves any legitimate penological purpose."

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In his ruling, Palmer wrote that it would not be permissible to execute other convicts "merely to achieve the politically popular end of killing two especially notorious inmates."

So it's not just a matter of people sentenced to death getting a fair trial, but the need--or better stated, lack thereof--for the death penalty itself.

I'd love to see this type of rationale rise to the level of the SCOTUS, but doubtful with the current crop of conservatives on the court.

Still, a wonderful day for Connecticut in moving on beyond a wretched institution that serves no rational purpose whatsoever.

[Live and Learn]

7. Rational and moral logic. Nice to see. nt