Now, now, rest your beating heart. I don’t really oppose abolition of the death penalty (don’t be silly). It is merely this abomination of a bill that I oppose. This bill was scheduled for a public hearing today, but given the gruesome weather we had, the hearing has been postponed to Wednesday.

The bill calls for prospective abolition of the death penalty. It is precisely this hackneyed idea that I cannot in good conscience support. Here is the pertinent new subsection of the bill:

Sec. 5. Subsection (a) of section 53a-46a of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):

(a) A person shall be subjected to the penalty of death for a capital felony committed prior to the effective date of this section only if a hearing is held in accordance with the provisions of this section.

That’s one of the most absurd pieces of legislation that I have seen in a bit. There are currently 10 (11?) members of CT’s death row and there are many, many more “capital” prosecutions currently pending in the State of CT. None of those would fall under this new bill and all of those defendants would still be subject to the death penalty.

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