In a 4-3 decision, the Connecticut Supreme Court
has barred the state's use of the death penalty.
The majority decision, written by Justice Richard N. Palmer, found a host of flaws in the death penalty law, which banned "prospective" death sentences, those imposed after the effective date of the law. But the majority wrote that it chose to analyze capital punishment and impose abolition from a broad perspective.
After analysis of the law and "in light of the governing constitutional principles and Connecticut's unique historical and legal landscape, we are persuaded that, following its prospective abolition, this state's death penalty no longer comports with contemporary standards of decency and no longer serves any legitimate penological purpose," Richard Palmer wrote.
A 2012 law ended the use of capital punishment in Connecticut, but still permitted for the execution of inmates already sentenced. The court's decision bars those executions as well.
That means that for now, there will be no further executions of state inmates in Connecticut. Whether the ban remains in place in future years will still be, the court's dissenters pointedly assert, up to future legislatures.
"Because the majority opinion has grounded its decision on the conclusion, albeit incorrect, that the death penalty no longer comports with evolving standards of decency, the legislature has the power to reenact the death penalty," she wrote. "As the majority recognizes, there is nothing that requires that the standards of decency evolve only in one direction."