Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty

GET INVOLVED

There are many things that you can do to work for abolition of the death penalty in Connecticut.  Here are a few things to consider doing:

• Most importantly, CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATOR.  Please call AND write to your state representative and senator and let them know your opposition to the death penalty.  To find your legislator, go to our web page at www.cnadp.org.
• Join the CNADP Listserve.  Just e-mail robertnave@cnadp.org and you will receive e-mail updates weekly on what is happening in Connecticut.
• Attend a meeting.  The CNADP meets every second Tuesday of the month in West Hartford at 7 p.m. (except for July and August).  For location and directions go to www.cnadp.org.
• Join the CNADP "Writers Bureau."  The Writers Bureau responds to all media mentions of the death penalty in Connecticut - especially in our newspapers.  You can help us write letters to the editor, position papers, or op-ed pieces.  Contact robertnave@cnadp.org for more information.
• If you are a student between the ages of 14 and 20 and still in a high school setting, enter our "I Dream A World" Arts Competition.  This annual competition allows our youth to get involved in the movement while competing for cash prizes.  Visit www.cnadp.org for more information.

Connecticut Death Penalty Facts and Information

The last execution to take place in Connecticut was on May 13, 2005. The last execution in Connecticut prior to this took place in 1960. Following the overturning by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 of the death penalty provisions in all states, the Connecticut State Legislature revised the statutes defining capital felonies and established new procedures for the imposition of the death penalty. These changes were enacted into law, effective October, 1973. Life imprisonment without the possibility of release has existed here as a statutory alternative to the death penalty since 1985. The minimum age to receive the death penalty is 18 a new provision to forbid the execution of the mentally retarded was enacted into law effective July, 2001. The last bill introduced to abolish the death penalty was House Bill 6012 in January 2005. It was passed by the Judiciary Committee and by the Appropriations Committee and debated on the floor of the House of Representatives on March 30, 2005 where it failed by a vote of 60-89.

In Connecticut the Board of Pardons has full authority to grant clemency. The governor has the power to grant reprieves after conviction until the next session of the general assembly. This is a stay of execution privilege meant to operate in an individual case only until the general assembly has the full opportunity to consider the matter. Under current law, the Governor would not have the power to establish a general moratorium on the death penalty by executive decision.

Since the new laws took effect, over 200 murder cases in Connecticut have been tried as capital felonies, leading to approximately 30 death penalty hearings. The following have been sentenced to death:

• Robert Breton in 1989, for murdering his ex-wife Joanne and son Robert, Jr. in 1987.
• Sedrick Cobb in 1991, for the 1989 kidnap, sexual assault, and murder of Julia Ashe.
• Daniel Webb in 1991, for the kidnap murder of Diane Gellenbeck in 1989.
• Richard Reynolds in 1995, for the 1992 murder of Waterbury Police Officer Walter Williams.
• Todd Rizzo in 1999, and then again, on June 23, 2005, for the 1997 murder of Stanley Edwards in Waterbury. The first death sentence was overturned by the State Supreme Court due to gross prosecutorial misconduct allowed during the sentencing phase as well as the court finding that the instructions given to the jury by the judge did not meet constitutional standards.
• Robert Courchesne, on December 17, 2003, for the September 15, 1998 murders of Demetris Rodgers (eight months pregnant) and her unborn baby who was delivered by emergency Caesarean section minutes after her death, but died 42 days later.
• Eduardo Santiago, on August 31, 2004, for the December, 2000 murder for hire of Joseph Niwinski in West Hartord.
• Jessie Campbell III, on October 12, 2006, for the August 26, 2000 murders of LaTaysha Logan and Desiree Privette and the attempted murder of her aunt, Carolyn Privette.

EXECUTED, MAY 13, 2005 - Michael Ross was convicted of the kidnap murders and sexual assault murders of Wendy Baribeault, April Brunias, Leslie Shelley, and Robin Stavinsky in 1983 and 1984.  In 1987 he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was overturned due to the court's failure to allow the jury to consider certain evidence as to his mental state. At a new penalty phase trial in 2000 he was again sentenced to death. After dropping his appeals, he was sentenced to death as a volunteer on October 6, and although the first set of dates in late January, 2005 were vacated, new dates were given in early February resulting in execution by lethal injection on May 13, 2005.

• A tenth man, Terry Johnson, was sentenced to death in 1993 for the 1991 murder of State Police Officer Russell Bagshaw, but the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment in 2000.
• An eleventh man, Ivo Colon, was sentenced to death in 2000 for the 1998 murder of Keriana Tellado, but the sentence was overturned by the Connecticut State Supreme Court and in a subsequent retrial, a plea bargain was reached resulting in two life sentences.

Other facts:

• In 34 years there have been 4,000 murders committed, but only 11 death sentences. Two were overturned after judicial review.
• Connecticut residents favor life without release over the death penalty by 49% to 36%. (Quinnipiac poll, January, 2005.)
• Major religious denominations support abolishing the death penalty.
• In New England, Connecticut stands alone as the only state with a death row and is to only state to have executed a prisoner in modern times.
• There are severe racial and geographic disparities in imposing the death sentence:
  • In Connecticut, of 11 death sentences, 5 were given to whites, 4 to African-Americans, and 2 to Hispanics;
  • Of their 21 victims, 15 were white and 6 were minorities;
  • Of their 21 victims, 16 were women and 5 were men;
  • Of the 11, 6 were sentenced to death in a single Judicial District: Waterbury. The majority of Judicial Districts have not had a single death sentence;
  • Of the 11 death sentences, four have been overturned, two permanently.
• Connecticut already offers the possibility of life without release.