Last night the Connecticut legislature decided to postpone repealing the death penalty until 2012.
That means one more year of failing victims’ families, risking sentencing innocent people to death, and wasting taxpayer dollars.
All the ingredients were there to make repeal a reality this year. There was support in the Senate. There was more than enough support in the House. The Governor was ready to sign it. Thousands of Connecticut citizens called on their lawmakers to support repeal. Dozens of families of murder victims brought their broken hearts and passionate stories to the capitol to share how the system failed them. Hundreds of religious leaders. Members of law enforcement. The media has been reporting repeal was a “done deal” for months.
So why is there still a death penalty in Connecticut?
At the 11th hour, a couple of lawmakers who support repeal decided to wait until next year, because of the pleas of one family. Like the death penalty itself, the repeal debate in Connecticut elevated one voice, the heinousness of one case, to drown out all the others. To drown out common sense itself.
One blogger asked, what if it had been a tax increase that we all knew was needed, but we postponed it because one family with more power and access than everyone else said it would affect them personally?
We know the system is harmful to victims’ families regardless of whether they support or oppose the death penalty. People may disagree on the solutions, but no one thinks it is working the way it is.
So many victims’ families poured their hearts and souls into this fight. These were families who were told that their loved ones’ murders were not “worthy” of the death penalty, whose pain and suffering were not compelling enough for the newspapers, whose cases were ignored, who had to wait until 1am to testify to an empty committee room in the legislature, who were the very embodiment of the arbitrariness and bias that infects our death penalty and amplifies one case over hundreds of others. Yesterday these families were told that once again, our policies are not meant to serve them, or most other families either.
That is what we do with the death penalty every day. We maintain a policy that steals millions of dollars from the broader pursuits of public safety and victims’ services to sink into a handful of cherry-picked death penalty cases, pitting victim against victim while harming us all.
This is why we need to keep fighting.
The decision last night means another year of suffering. But only one. We will get this done.
Thank you to every one of you who took action and supported EJUSA in this work. We know that winning is possible because we've done it. Justice may be delayed, but it is not denied.
There’s a chance today to share your views today. Vote in this poll and tell the people of Connecticut there is no “fix” for the death penalty. It simply has to go.
For more information on the death penalty and the movement to end it, visit ejusa.org.