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| Senate OK's Changes In Death Penalty |
| By The Hartford Courant |
| Published: 06/06/2001 |
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Connecticut would become the 14th state in the country to exempt mentally retarded criminals from execution, and would undertake an in-depth study of the death penalty, under a measure that received final approval Tuesday by the Senate. While a spokesman for Republican Gov. John G. Rowland said the governor wants to review the final bill, he is expected to sign it. The bill that passed the Senate 22-13 marks a compromise between death penalty supporters and opponents, reflecting a divide in public opinion on a punishment that Connecticut hasn't carried out in 41 years - and isn't expected to exercise for at least another two. Besides the exemption, it would remove one category of crime - the sale of illegal drugs resulting in a death - from qualifying for capital punishment. It also would establish a nine-member commission to study the death penalty, including whether there are disparities in prosecutors' decisions to seek death sentences based on a defendant's or victim's race or economic status. The glue holding the compromise together is a provision that would make it easier to impose a death sentence on people who kill police officers or other law enforcement officials. That change is largely a backlash against the state Supreme Court's decision last year to reverse an inmate's death sentence in the 1991 shooting of Trooper Russell Bagshaw. |
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