Connecticut Is Wrong To Veto Death Penalty Abolition Bill
I am extremely disappointed that Governor M. Jodi Rell today vetoed HB 6578, which would have abolished the death penalty in Connecticut.
Governor Rell’s veto of this legislation represents a missed opportunity for the state of Connecticut to extricate itself from the useless and costly boondoggle that is capital punishment. Any other policy that wasted valuable taxpayer dollars without reducing crime or making anyone safer would have been eliminated without hesitation.
No system can be perfected enough to prevent the innocent from being sent to death row. Recent cases have demonstrated the fallibility of Connecticut’s justice system. In the last two years James Tillman, who was given 45 years for rape, and Miguel Roman, who was sentenced to 60 years for murder, were found to be have been wrongfully convicted. The exonerations of these innocent men ought to make Governor Rell realize that the irreversible punishment of death has no place in a system that makes such mistakes.
This veto puts Connecticut squarely on the wrong side of history. The use of the death penalty is dropping in every state of the union, as juries pass fewer death sentences and state legislatures impose greater restrictions. Some, such as New Mexico, repeal capital punishment altogether. An average of three countries end the use of the death penalty each year, and today more than two-thirds of nations worldwide have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.
The death penalty is increasingly being acknowledged as a severe violation of human rights. While, as the governor has argued, heinous crimes have been committed in Connecticut, the deliberate killing of a human being is never an appropriate punishment for any crime. It is inevitable that the world will eventually outlaw this cruel practice, and it is a shame that Connecticut will not pave the way to make that happen.
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Tags: amnesty international, capital punishment, connecticut, death penalty, govenor rell, hb 6578, human rights, veto
June 5th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I’m with you, Larry. Even today, my home state of Connecticut STILL hates sinners and punishes them with death. Even people, including William Petit Jr and Gov. Rell, STILL believe that the death penalty is “not murder or revenge, but sheer, ultimate justice and the sheer, ultimate punishment for criminals who commit heinous murders”! Even these DP yahoos and Bill Petit accuse death penalty abolitionists and defense lawyers for defendants and capital defendants of not caring about crime victims, wasting money, harboring killers, supporting abortion, having no regard for dignity and life, not reading the Bible, and obstructing justice; call those who voted for the death penalty repeal and voted against bills that would have sped up the death penalty process ” ignorant cowards”; and denounce life in prison without parole and anything less than the death penalty as “the ultimate injustice”! These DP supporters claim, “If you truly care about murder victims, you should give these b@stards who kill them the ultimate punishment of death, because the death penalty is the ultimate justice that deters crime and brings peace to victims’ families, and sends the b@stards to hell for their murder crimes, whether or not they act repentant! Only true heroes who support human rights and secure truth and justice are those who support the death penalty! Those who cruelly murder and kill our loved ones are heartless b@stards who feign remorse, must forfeit their lives and their rights, even in foreign lands, and don’t deserve to live! The death penalty is not revenge, but the ultimate justice and the ultimate solution to life’s problems!” My heart breaks for victims’ families, even those who believe that execution is the ultimate solution like Petit. I feel that Connecticut is still continuing to live in fear, hate, lies and ignorance that cannot be overcome. I feel so sad that I just don’t know what to do anymore. We all live in a cycle of death, because people believe that we are all sinners who deserve to have our human rights taken away, that we all deserve to be executed and to go to hell for our crimes! I don’t know what to do about it anymore!
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June 5th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Forgot to add that when the trial of defendants Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes starts next year, Bill Petit and his friends will have their vengeance in the form of justice satisfied by sentencing the two defendants to death and executing them, while still unaware of the flaws in the system and inadequate legal representation and inadequate defense lawyers, and unaware that they will cause the Komisarjevsky and Hayes families more grief in the execution of their loved ones! My heart still breaks for the families of Petit, Komisarjevsky and Hayes, and all I can do now is pray for all of them.
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