It was written by a Connecticut legislator named Bill Simanski, a Republican from Granby, whose main motivation was to insure that every Connecticut citizen be availed of all the facts involved with this proposed Repeal Bill , as it is once again, about to be voted upon by the Connecticut legislature.
Very few people actually understand the serious ramifications that this bill will have if made into law. It would adversely affect our criminal judicial system insofar as increasing our violent crime rate due to lack of deterrence, the state will absorb huge monetary expenses resultant from the deluge of new trials that will surely happen as public defenders in capital murder cases refuse any plea offers, knowing that by taking their case to trail they've got a chance of receiving a life sentence with the possibility of parole" (an obscene misnomer if there ever was one!) and thus any lawyer will refuse a plea as they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by now going to trial and immediately pleading not guilty no matter how much evidence the state has against their client.
Just one of these trials typically cost millions upon millions of dollars in state money - both for the prosecutors and the public defenders who are on our States payroll and more often than not statistically wind up representing defendants in capital murder cases.
Now typically very few legislators or anti-death penalty advocates talk about any of these issues; usually we hear a great deal about emotionally charged issues on the periphery of the whole death penalty issue.
This issue has always been and continues to have at its core a heated and emotional debate; Mr Simanski proposes to remove some of the emotion and lay out the facts -facts which are in and of themselves extremely disturbing.
This is the singular most important issue this state will ever face. As such it is up to the residents to understand what it means and accordingly put pressure on our Connecticut Senators, for they alone now hold the key as to whether this bill will pass muster and become law in the State of Connecticut.
The Bill just squeaked through The Connecticut Judiciary committee, it's origination point, and is poised to proceed to the Senate ,where if it passes by a certain margin - it will be made into law.
As responsible citizens of this State, we simply cannot allow this to happen. And despite the overt media bias favoring the Repeal, it is far from the" inevitable outcome" being portrayed in so many Connecticut based papers such as the Hartford Courant among others.
This type of "journalism" is designed to discourage the people of the State from attempting to fight this bill, indirectly implicating that such efforts are hopeless at this point - whereas the opposite is in fact true. This is a very close close divisive split within the Senate and even the Judiciary vote was closer than was "expected".
Efforts by Connecticut voters to be heard along with commitments to vote against any legislators that have voted for this repeal, starting with the members of the judiciary committee, each of whom are legislators themselves assembly persons or State Senators that cover a certain district in this state and as such are voted into these positions by the public.
The constituents within those districts need to make it very clear that no matter who is running against them in the next election, political party be damned - anyone voting for this repeal is clearly soft on crime and will be voted out. Let your local legislators know that as a voting resident you will have a long memory, and that their vote on this repeal may easily become the deciding factor in whether they have a future in politics.
It would seem that the owners editors and writers of our States largest newspapers are in the pocket of the democratic majority who sit on our general assembly, as well as our new Governor whose existence basically reignited the Democratic legislator's determination to get the Death Penalty repealed once and for all. A similar bill to abolish the DP was written up and voted in to law in 2009, infuriating the people of this State, who were still reeling from the trauma of three sets of vicious capital murders all of which had yet to be adjudicated in fact jury selection had yet to start on any of them!
Governor Rell a Republican, used what was for her a rare veto upon the last Death Penalty abolition bill, citing that in poll after poll it is clear what her constituents want and that is the death penalty must remain as an option for Connecticut prosecutors for the very worst Capital murders, where already a plethora of aggravating factors are required of any crimes where this sentence is even pursued by the state.
There was also a common agreement among the public, Republican and even some Democratic legislators that the current appeals process needs to be completely revamped and made usable, as the states death penalty has become crippled by a limitless appeals process, which every public defender takes full advantage of throwing everything but the kitchen sink at every case no matter the brutality involved or their clients actual guilt; Guilt and accountability has become a non issue to Connecticut lawyers, and this is where the current slippery slope that we find ourselves in, began. Justice is dead. Accountability an archaic notion in the world of Connecticut's courts.
Please get involved with this critical issues and call the three Connecticut Senators listed below immediately. Deluge their voice mails with the strength of your opinion on this extremely important issue - Poll after Poll has proven that on average 68 percent of all Connecticut residents want the Death penalty to remain an option for our States prosecutors in our worst capital crimes.
Senator Prague (860)240-0543. Senator Maynard (860)240-0584. Senator Crisco (860)240-0189.
There is also a misleading and purposefully disingenuous claim that the repeal bill is "prospective", meaning that it will supposedly not apply retroactively to all of the men currently on death row.
This as Rep Simanski explains, is an absolute falsehood, which was only designed to placate the public, as the legislators who wrote the bill anticipated the anger and uproar that a "non-prospective" repeal would cause in light of all of the recent protracted and traumatic death penalty murder cases which the people of the state are still reeling from.
What this means is that every man on death row - including the B.J Clarke and Karen Clarke murderers, the Petit family rapists/murderers and a gaggle of other extremely dangerous convicted murderers and rapists each given death sentences by a jury of their peers, will never actually receive the Death penalty, and worse, they will all wind up in general population in prison with the same privileges that those men enjoy! Lead State Public defender Susan Storey, has already announced her intention to fight on these men's behalf and has cited that prospective repeals have not worked for others states, and indeed the prospective portions of these bills have been later scrapped by some.
And the line just keeps getting drawn further and further away. The courts are owned by defense attorneys whose very nature is to push the envelope no matter the cost to the public in lives pain brutality fear and life long trauma. These lawyers happen to comprise a good portion of our State's judiciary committee and our legislature.
Stop the Connecticut Death Penalty Repeal Bill Now.
Please petition our SENATORS, Make those calls and let your voice and your opinion be heard. Send emails and letters to every single Connecticut Senator, regardless of their political affiliation. Ask your Friends and acquaintances to do the same and remember although the three Senators listed are reportedly on the fence, every republican Senator needs to be reminded as do independent thinking democrats that do not necessarily follow the herd. There are a handful in the Connecticut Senate that actually think for themselves.
Foothills Media Group - Death Penalty Repeal Bill The real facts
