Foley, Malloy and the future of the Death Penalty

This article from is a must read. As usual, the Independent does an excellent job, in this case capturing the essence of the two gubernatorial candidates for the State of Connecticut, both as men as well as politicians.

Reading the article only solidified my existing base instincts about the two men running for Governor, adding even more impetus to cross my party's lines and vote for Foley in the upcoming race in November. I should mention that the largely democratic state legislature has in recent years been the object of my frustration ire and outright disbelief due to thier mishandling of so many matters surrounding crime and our flawed judicial system. From their refusal to enact a three strikes law to thier reluctance to spend money on revamping our Court and Parole systems and the final insult - while people in the state were still reeling, and traumatzed, by a series of murders and home invasions which began with the Petit family, crimes, the Judiciary committee, chose that moment to write up a bill to kill the Death Penalty.

The timing was beyond outrageous, it was obscene. The bill,which passed the general assembly and the Senate, did not become law thanks to Gov Rell who vetoed it. but a core of determined and arrogant legislators promised that as soon once democrat in the Governors mansion-" it was an inevitability"that Connecticut would get rid of the Death Penalty. Ironically, these are the same people trying to get Malloy to back off his pronouncemnt that as Governor he would not veto the very same bill, if and when it was passed again.

Therefore a vote for Malloy is basically sealing the deal for the abolition of the death Penalty in Connecticut. As Explained in prior posts, beyond the obvious issuesof Justice and restitution,
there are other practical reasons that abolition would be dangerous and costly for the state of Connecticut.

The word is that due to the timing of the Petit murder trial with the November elections, many
democratic leaders the scene, are trying to convince Malloy to quietly back-track on this key issue - at least with disingenuous lip service not in a genuine ideological way - Once in office he'll do what he wants

Foe his part, Malloy has refused to relent, only going as far as to throw a bone by assuring us
that the men that are accused of murdering the Petit family members, if found guilty and given the death penalty, will still receive the death penalty, because it was the law at the time that the crimes were committed and adjudicated.. This bone that Malloy is throwing is completely untrue, and Foley explains why:

Once the Death Penalty is abolished in the state-and that would be likely within 6-12 months of Malloy taking office) both Hayes and Komisarjevsky would have excellent grounds for an appeal
for those sentences assuming they technically get the death sentence which I belive they will.

Malloy, a former prosecutor, knows this is the case: in classic politician fashion is clearly trying to placate the rumbling masses, who are rightfully worked up over the recent Trial for Steven Hayes, where brutal details of the Petit girls suffering at the hands of the two paroled repeat offendrs has finally come to light three plus years after the women actually lost their lives to the worst violent crimes this state has seen.

If Malloy were to become Governor,these two murdering rapists would wind up with in effect a" get a out of jail free card " dodging their well- deserved death penalty sentence.
The state has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars insuring that both defendants are given a fair trial, with Connecticut picking up the tab for the prosecution as well as both men's defense ( both have public defenders paid for by the state-one of them Thomas Ullmann is lead public defender
and notorious anti-death penalty advocate.

Then there is the huge expense of 24 hour prison guards/surveillance and extremely heightened security measures for both prisoners en route to and from their court appearances. The latter due to a fear of vigilantism.

Oddly, as of the last three months or so, anti-death penalty spouting legislators have become mum on the whole subject, due to the inconvenient timing of the November elections colliding with the well publicized Hayes trial,.

With Governor Jodi Rell retiring, the question begs, who can we count on to ensure that the Death Penalty remains the only appropriate sentence for Connecticut's most brutal, violent crimes? The answer is clearly Foley.

Besides being pro-death penalty, Foley lacks the Signature arrogance that seems to define our General assembly and to some degree our judiciary committee - Interestingly, many lawyers comprise both entities, and Dan Malloy is himself an ex-prosecutor and defense attorney.