Posted on 04/12/2012 12:03:03 PM PDT by matt04
On an 86-62 vote, the House of Representatives gave final legislative approval Wednesday night to a bill repealing the death penalty for future crimes, leaving Connecticut one step away from becoming the 17th state to abolish capital punishment.
The bill, which Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has pledged to sign, advanced after a 9 1/2-hour debate focused largely on a provision that still mandates capital punishment for Connecticut's 11 death row inmates.
The bill passed with votes from 78 of 99 Democrats and eight of 52 Republicans. Senate Democrats passed the bill 20-16 last week, with two Democrats joining all 14 Republicans in opposition.
In place of the existing crime of capital felony, the bill creates a new crime of murder with special circumstances, punishable by life in prison without chance of release.
...
Minority Republicans focused much of their opposition to a controversial legal assertion first offered by Malloy during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign: that Connecticut could repeal capital punishment for future crimes without lifting that penalty for those already on death row.
Only New Mexico has a similar law.
...
"I'm pleased the House passed the bill, and when it gets to my desk I will sign it," Malloy wrote in a statement released immediately after the vote. "I want to be careful in the tone of my remarks, out of respect for the gravity of the issue at hand and out of respect for people on both sides of the issue.
"When I sign this bill, Connecticut will join 16 other states and almost every other industrialized nation in moving toward what I believe is better public policy...."
(Excerpt) Read more at ctmirror.org ...
I can believe it.
Maybe, but when the chips are down, Pennsylvania always lines up with the Democrats. Just too many Pennsylvanians still cling to their unions and entitlements.
They might as well put up billboards at the borders stating that the state welcomes and embraces murders.
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