Windsor Dems Call for Death Penalty Repeal

Information provided by Ben Jones, executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Last night at its monthly meeting, the Windsor Democratic Town Committee voted 29-0 with three abstaining to approve a resolution calling on Connecticut’s General Assembly to repeal the state’s death penalty during the 2012 legislative session.

“The time has come to finally do away with a death penalty that does not work and cannot be fixed,” Windsor DTC Chairman Leo Canty said. “Our state’s death penalty only drags murder victim family members through decades of court proceedings with virtually no prospect of a resolution, while wasting taxpayer money that could be much better spent on victims’ services and crime prevention.”

The Windsor DTC vote follows a similar action taken recently by members of the Woodbridge Democratic Town Committee.  At its October 25th meeting the Woodbridge DTC voted 15-1 with 4 abstaining in favor of a resolution calling for an end to capital punishment in Connecticut.

“Active democrats in our area who invest precious time and money to elect candidates are calling on our legislators to not delay action on this any longer,” Canty said. “We are looking for and expecting leadership on this issue during the upcoming legislative session.”

In 2009 the Connecticut General Assembly approved a bill repealing the state’s death penalty. Then Governor M. Jodi Rell vetoed the legislation. Connecticut’s present Governor, Dannel Malloy, is a staunch opponent of capital punishment and has vowed to sign a repeal bill into law.

The Windsor DTC joins a growing chorus of death penalty opponents across the nation calling for an end to a system that risks executing innocent people and provides no deterrent to crime. Earlier this year the State of Illinois repealed its death penalty, following closely after similar actions by the states of New Jersey, New Mexico and New York.