Senate Reads My Letter, Abolishes Death Penalty

Letter to the editor today in the Republican-American. They made a few small changes, but otherwise it's pretty much what I submitted.

Capital-punishment law is ineffective

I encourage Gov. M. Jodi Rell and state legislators to support the death-penalty-abolition bill, which the House approved last week.

The law is ineffective and pointless. Since Connecticut reinstated the death penalty in the early 1970s, only one person has been executed. That was serial killer Michael Ross, and he had waived his appeals, essentially asking the state to kill him. In almost 40 years, we have been unable to execute any criminal who has not actually wanted to die.

The law serves neither retribution nor deterrence. If Gov. Rell and others believe in capital punishment, they should reform our statutes so the worst criminals face actual death sentences. Otherwise, they should recognize our system is pointless and support the House bill.

Life imprisonment without parole is an acceptably harsh punishment for the most heinous crimes.

[Me]
Middlebury

Meanwhile, at 4:11 this morning, the Connecticut State Senate voted 19-17 to repeal the abolish the death penalty. Clearly, my letter must have persuaded them.

Some interesting commentary over on My Left Nutmeg:

Many of us wondered during the debate where the church was on this. It seems as if some are very eager to rally against marriage equality, or against provisions to make it easier to hold church officials accountable for misdoings, but when it comes to the Death Penalty, we don't hear much from the church.

Like Gov. Rell, I'm an Episcopalian, so I'll refer to our church's position on the Death Penalty. In 1988, the Lambdeth Conference passed Resolution 33, which "Urges the Church to speak out against...all governments who practice capital punishment". Gov. Rell should respect the position of the church on this issue and sign the bill repealing the Death Penalty. However, most people do not expect this to happen.