Connecticut’s Supreme Court is expected to release a decision today that could decide the fate of the inmates now on the state’s death row. There are 11 state prisoners on death row.
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The state had passed a law in 2012 to repeal the death penalty only for future crimes. Check back for more details…
The Connecticut Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling, agreed with his position.
The provision was added after the trials of Cheshire home invasion killers and rapists Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, according to the Hartford Courant.
Santiago was sentenced to lethal injection in 2005 for a 2000 murder-for-hire killing.
“For these reasons, execution of those offenders who committed capital felonies prior to April 25, 2012, would violate the state constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment”. It left Santiago still eligible for the death penalty because his crime was committed before the new death penalty law was enacted.
The ruling came just weeks after lawmakers passed the death penalty repeal.
“In prospectively abolishing the death penalty, the legislature did not simply express the will of the people that it no longer makes sense to maintain the costly and unsatisfying charade of a capital punishment scheme in which no one ever receives the ultimate punishment”, The concurring judges wrote in their opinion.
Arguing before the state’s highest court in 2013, lawyers for Eduardo Santiago said the law was unconstitutional. He also argued that the court could not repeal just part of the new law.
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Joseph Taborsky was executed in 1960 and Michael Ross was executed in 2005.
