Yahoo Finance Connecticut Upholds Abolishment Of Death Penalty
The Connecticut Supreme Court has upheld a landmark ruling declaring the state's death penalty unconstitutional and abolishing capital punishment.
The decision, passed by five votes to two on Thursday, overturned death sentences imposed on Russell Peeler Jr and ordered a lower court to impose a term of life in prison without the possibility of release.
Peeler had been on death row for ordering the 1999 killings of a woman and her eight-year-old son in Bridgeport.
The justices were reconsidering a 4-3 ruling made in August last year in the appeal of another death row inmate, Eduardo Santiago.
That ruling declared capital punishment no longer complied with the state constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
At the time, the justices wrote dissenting opinions which included highly unusual criticism of each other.
In 2012, a law passed by Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy and the Democrat-controlled legislature abolished the death penalty, but only for future murders.
That left 11 men, including Peeler and Santiago, still facing execution.
The ruling made last year found essentially that it would not be fair to execute remaining death row inmates when lawmakers had determined the death penalty was no longer needed.
Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane said prosecutors will now move to get the death row inmates resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release.
Opponents of the death penalty have praised the ruling.
Sheila Denion, project director for the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty, said it "takes the prudent step of ending the state's failed death penalty and the possibility of any future executions".
Connecticut's death penalty has been widely criticised by advocates and opponents, because state law allowed for multiple appeals which virtually assured inmates would not be executed for decades.
The state's last execution was of serial killer Michael Ross in 2005, but only after he dropped all of his appeals.
Earlier this month, the Florida Supreme Court heard legal arguments in a case that could see the state's 396 death row inmates having their sentences commuted to life terms.
