State Rep. Charlie Stallworth, a city pastor, testified before the Judiciary Committee in support of abolishing Connecticut’s death penalty. From Stallworth:
Rep. Charlie Stallworth (D-Bridgeport) testified in front of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee in favor of Senate Bill #280 that seeks to replace the death penalty for capital crimes with life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“There have been many cases where inmates put to death have been exonerated after the fact, and across the country 140 innocent persons have been freed from death row,” Rep. Stallworth said. “Studies show the manner in which the death penalty is applied is racially biased with a minority being 6 times more likely to receive the death penalty for crimes committed against whites.”
The bill seeks to replace the death penalty with a penalty of life imprisonment without the possibility of release for certain murders committed on or after the effective date passage. The bill is currently awaiting a vote in the Judiciary Committee.
“I have no doubt that generations to come will look back at us and question how we could condone a punishment so unfairly handed out,” Rep. Stallworth added.
Stallworth represents the 126th district in Bridgeport; he serves on the Higher Education, Finance and Public Health Committees.
I do not support the death penalty but life without parole is a slap on the wrist in comparison. If you tell me murderers will go to maximum security where they are in their one-man cell for 23 hrs a day and get 1 hr per day outside that is a more fitting punishment.
Look, prison is not a walk in the park but getting TV, internet services, canteen privileges and the like is actually better than the conditions most of the prisoners came from.
I do not believe in the death penalty either. I also do not believe the taxpayers’ money should be used to give murderers a better life inside prison than they had outside of prison. I could only agree with this bill if the convicted murderers did not have the same privileges as the general population. They should not be able to have TV, outside exercise, a job …
Let them sit in a cell, get three meals a day, a clean bed and nothing more.
Those two convicted-and-sentenced-to-die killers gave a Cheshire woman and her two daughters the death penalty. Why should their lives be any longer than the lives of their victims???
*** Better check & balances for the accused, maybe; however who speaks for the victims? *** VICTIMS’ RIGHTS ***
I’ll bet Stallworth can’t give the names of those innocents who were executed. The main problem is the death penalty is not evenly applied. How does the multiple murderer who killed the Donnellys get life while the multiple murderers who killed the Petit family get the death penalty? In both cases there were no mitigating circumstances and in both cases the victims and the murderers were white.
*** New York murderer C. DiMeo received a life sentence in New York first, then was tried in CT. Would waiting out 25 years then transferring him to CT for execution and all the appeals that go with it be better? *** TRUTH SERUM ***