Update:
The two criminal scum bags are now off of Death Row in Connecticut!
Yeah!
Let's all thank the Democrats in Connecticut for this wonderful progress in the case!
Thanks, Governor Dannel Malloy!
Great job!
(Please note sarcasm.)
Very partisan and inaccurate posting. The CT legislature made the law to end the death penalty and the governor signed it into law. The law only applied to future capital punishment cases, not existing ones like the Petit murders. There were 11 men on death row which should have still received the death penalty. It was the CT state supreme court which overturned the law so all death sentences were commuted to life sentences.
shareMy posting was very accurate.
Yes, of course, the CT Legislature enacted the new law (ending the death penalty). And the Governor signed the new law into effect.
Yes, that's all true.
That law ended the death penalty for "new crimes", but kept the death penalty still available for those "older crimes" (that is, the guys who were already on Death Row).
The CT State Supreme Court then later said that the new law was unconstitutional. In other words, you can't have two groups of prisoners: one group for whom the death sentence is unconstitutional (per the new law); and -- at the same time -- another group for whom the death sentence is constitutional (per the older laws).
So, the CT Supreme Court (essentially) revised the new law, making the death penalty unconstitutional for everyone: those who commit future crimes and those who committed past crimes (i.e., those who were already on Death Row).
So, we agree on all those facts.
This (below) is the part that you are leaving out. Which makes my posting accurate. And yours, misleading.
When the Legislature and the Governor passed the new law, they fully knew that it would be rendered by the court as unconstitutional. They knew that the law would never stand as written, once it hit the Supreme Court.
They all knew that the state cannot have a two-tiered system: one group that can get the death penalty and one group that cannot. That is so unconstitutional on its face. Everybody knew that. Remember that the Governor is a lawyer (a former prosecutor). You can bet that he knew this. And most/many of the Legislature are also lawyers.
So, the bottom line is that they passed the law, knowing that it would also invalidate the death sentences for the "older" prisoners.
They just made a big political "show", claiming that they still wanted the death sentence for the older prisoners.
Which -- if you think about it -- makes no sense. How can you want the death penalty for one group of people, then say that you don't want it for another group? All based on the arbitrary factor of what date they committed their crime. It's all a political sham.
So, the legislators wanted to eat their cake and have it, too. They wanted to go on record as being "tough on crime" and not wanting to invalidate the death sentences of the Cheshire murderers. (Those two murderers were really the political football. The other nine were just incidental.)
The legislators did not want to go down in history as the ones who invalidated the Cheshire murderers' death sentences.
But -- they all damn well knew -- that when they wrote the new law, that the CT Supreme Court would then invalidate the death sentences.
So, they just "punted".
They wanted to to make all death sentences invalid. But they did not want to publicly say that.
They wanted to "shift" the blame to the CT Supreme Court.
This way they could claim to their constituents, "Well, we didn't invalidate the Cheshire death sentences! The CT Supreme Court did that! Not us! So, take up your beef with the CT Supreme Court! Not with me!"
That was their intent all along.
It is ludicrous to believe otherwise.
They are politicians, all of them. That's what they do. They "spin" facts to get the results that they want.
And, the biggest problem, is that the people of the State of CT want the death penalty. I believe it was about a 66% in favor and 33% not in favor poll.
So, the state residents want to keep the death penalty.
But the (Democrat-controlled) legislature decided to overturn the will of the people.
And, you can bet that (Democrat) Malloy and the Legislature knew exactly what they were doing when they enacted a law that they knew the CT Supreme Court would never uphold.
So, again, my post was not partisan nor inaccurate.
In fact, your post is partisan, inaccurate, and highly misleading.
You left out all of the important facts. The ones I mentioned here above.
Thanks.
If you disagree, tell me what makes any rational sense about a legislator (or Governor) wanting the death sentence for some state residents, yet not for others? Based on the arbitrary reason of the date the crime was committed?
I am quite sure that Democrats will twist and turn their words and reasons and logic to try to make sense of this.
But the public is not stupid. We all know exactly what happened behind closed doors.
And, by the way ...
Wasn't Malloy voted as the worst governor in the entire US, when compared to all of the 50 governors?
Or something like that?
Geez, I wonder why that would be?
Geez.
I only know what occurred. I don't know any of the legislators personally, so I was not privy to the political machinations you describe, though politicians are good at that for sure. The documentary seemed to indicate there is a contingent of the electorate which wants the death penalty. It sounds like a grass roots campaign should be started to vote out the anti-death penalty legislators and bring the question of the death penalty to the general assembly for a constitutional amendment.
shareEven if we pass the death penalty again (in the future), it still will have erased the death penalty for all these 11 freaks on (former) Death Row.
So, in other words, we would be starting back at Square One.
These (this new legislation and the CT Supreme Court decision) have erased the past 50-100 years of death penalty law in Connecticut.
They have pushed us back in time at least 50-100 years.
In Connecticut, the government and the lawmakers are highly concerned with the rights of the scum bag criminals and murderers.
And they couldn't give two $hits about the victims and the victims' family members.
I'm disgusted :( The family did all of that to have it thrown back in their face. How is that justice. I'm outraged!
shareI'm disgusted :( The family did all of that to have it thrown back in their face. How is that justice. I'm outraged!