Voted by the Connecticut House of Representatives Wednesday night, the bill to end the death penalty in the northeastern state is due to be signed by Governor Dannel Malloy soon. Connecticut is one of the five states in the past five years, and the 17th state overall, to abolish the age-old practice. Supporters of the bill noted that only one person had been executed in the state since 1960.
In an 86-62 vote, lawmakers spent the night reviewing heinous crimes, like the Petit family murders in 2007, to reach a conclusion. The two murders in the Petit case and nine others will be exempt from the bill, since it’s only being applied to future cases. The bill will replace capital punishment with a lifetime sentence and no possibility of parole.
Those who support the bill also noted that sometimes the legislative system makes mistakes and exonerates innocent people years later. "For decades we have not had a workable death penalty,'' Malloy said in a statement. "Going forward, we will have a system that allows us to put these people away for life, in living conditions none of us would want to experience."
