CT's Death Penalty Again up for Debate

Legislation to repeal the state's death penalty is not dead yet.

A repeal proposal failed in the state Senate last year, but lawmakers will once again bring the issue before the Judiciary Committee, according to the Associated Press.

Legislators are expected to bring it before the Committee on Wednesday morning with Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, who represents New Haven, leading the effort. “I am going to push this each session,” Holder-Winfield told Patch in December.

National civil rights leaders gathered at the Stamford Government Center last November to call for the repeal of Connecticut’s death penalty. Among those who spoke were National NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, Kim Davis, whose brother Troy was executed in Georgia two months earlier, and Reverend Raphael Gamaliel Warnock of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church.

The death penalty was also a focus when Stamford residents gathered last month to march in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Day. "We're actively following the lead of Ben Jealous and trying to get it abolished in Connecticut," Jack Bryant, president of the Stamford chapter of the NAACP, told Patch. "We're one of the first states in the NAACP to advocate abolishing the death penalty."

Gov. Dannel Malloy has said that he would sign legislation repealing the death penalty, according to AP.