Connecticut Legislative Committe Votes to Abolish Death Penalty

An article in today's Hartford Courant:

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A key legislative committee voted Wednesday to abolish Connecticut's long-standing death penalty, as serial killer Michael Ross awaits execution.

The Democrat-controlled Judiciary Committee voted 24-15 to replace the punishment of death by lethal injection with life in prison without the possibility of parole. It marked the first time a bill ending the death penalty has survived a committee vote.

It is questionable whether there is enough support in the full General Assembly to pass the bill, but death penalty opponents hailed the Judiciary Committee's vote as an important step toward eventually ending capital punishment.

"I think for those people who are opposed to the death penalty, this is an encouraging victory for them," said Kim Harrison, a lobbyist for the Connecticut Church of Christ since 1988.

She acknowledged the bill faces "a long hurdle" in the House of Representatives, where the legislation will be debated next.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell has said she will veto any bill that would end the death penalty. To override a gubernatorial veto, legislators would need a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate.

A combination of new faces on the Judiciary Committee and frustration over long delays in Ross' scheduled execution raised prospects for the legislation on Wednesday. Aside from scrapping the death penalty, the bill would commute the death sentences of the seven men on death row, including Ross, to life in prison.

Ross, 45, who is facing execution for killing four young women and girls in eastern Connecticut in the early 1980s, has decided to forgo his remaining appeals and face his death sentence.

The killer came within hours on Jan. 29 of becoming the first person to be put to death in New England since 1960. The execution was postponed until May 11 so his mental competency could be examined.

Ross was mentioned often during the committee's debate, which lasted more than 21/2 hours.

Opponents of the death penalty argued that sentencing Ross to life in prison without parole would be a tougher sentence than death. Several lawmakers questioned why the state should give the serial killer what he wants: relief from his 20 years of imprisonment.

Capital punishment supporters said it would be unconscionable to commute Ross' sentence to life in prison because of the horrific nature of his crimes. They reminded fellow lawmakers of the victims' families and the fact Ross murdered a total of eight young women in Connecticut and New York. Most of them were also raped.

"We're going to commute his sentence? I don't want to be a party to that," said Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, the ranking Republican on the committee.

Rep. William Hamzy, R-Plymouth, said the crimes committed by the other men on Connecticut's death row were also so terrible that juries decided the death penalty was warranted.

"This bill does much more than eliminate the death penalty," he said. "This bill commutes the sentences of people convicted by a jury of their peers. Who are we to second-guess those juries and those judges?"

Others argued that Connecticut's death penalty law is written very narrowly to cover only the worst of crimes, such as murder of a child and murder of a police officer. They said there is no question that everyone on the state's death row is guilty.

Currently, in capital felony cases, a jury can choose between death or life in prison without chance of parole.

Many arguments were offered for abolishing capital punishment in Connecticut, including the high cost of executing someone and the risk of possibly killing an innocent person. Connecticut and New Hampshire are the only New England states with a death penalty law on the books.

"We can do something better, better than what it is that we have," said Rep. William Dyson, D-New Haven, who has been regularly protesting the death penalty in the Legislative Office Building since the legislative session began in January.

The two co-chairmen of the Judiciary Committee, who both supported the bill, said they see public opinion gradually changing on capital punishment in Connecticut and across the nation. Ten years ago, the state legislature voted for a bill that was supposed to make it easier to execute someone. On Wednesday, a committee voted to abolish executions in Connecticut.

"There is a growing recognition that it's a false choice to say you're either for or against the death penalty," said Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, the committee co-chairman. "Serving until you naturally die is a very difficult sentence to serve."

Posted by beth at 02:17 PM