Connecticut abolishes death penalty

originally by: USA Today
published: 25 April 2012

Capital punishment has been abolished in Connecticut, the 17th state to end executions.

Gov. Dannel Malloy signed the legislation this afternoon, without a public ceremony, the Waterbury American-Republican reports from Hartford. The repeal does not apply to the 11 men on death row, who “are far more likely to die of old age than they are to be put to death,” the governor said in a statement.

Malloy, a Democrat and former prosecutor, called it “an historic moment,” but said “it is a moment for sober reflection, not celebration.”

Many of us who have advocated for this position over the years have said there is a moral component to our opposition to the death penalty.

26 March 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Committee passes death penalty repeal bill

originally by: The Day
published: 22nd March 2012

A bill that would abolish the state’s death penalty for all future cases and replace the punishment with life imprisonment has passed its first round of votes in the General Assembly despite a recent poll’s findings that repeal is unpopular with a majority of voters. Members of the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee voted 24-19 in favor of the bill on Wednesday. Now, the vote awaits further legislative action by the state’s Senate.

The vote on the bill came shortly after a new Quinnipiac University poll showed 62 percent of Connecticut residents do not support repealing the death penalty.

16 February 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Troy Davis Nephew De’Jaun Davis-Correia on what’s next

originally by: TheRoot
published: 8th February 2012

Antone De’Jaun Davis-Correia was more than proud to be selected as one of The Root’s 25 Young Futurists last year; he was relieved. He saw it as validation of his work to abolish the death penalty. But since receiving that honor in February of 2011, the teen, who goes by “De’Jaun,” lost his grandmother, his uncle was executed and his mother died of cancer.

De’Jaun, 17, of Savannah, Ga., was born into the debate about capital punishment. His uncle, Troy Davis, was already on death row for the August 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail.