Eleven years ago, former Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions in Illinois after 13 condemned inmates had been cleared. "Ryan, a Republican, cited a Tribune investigative series that examined each of the state's nearly 300 capital cases and exposed how bias, error and incompetence undermined many of them,'' the paper reports.
That, in a nutshell, was the argument made by several speakers during a marathon legislative yesterday in Hartford on whether Connecticut should repeal its death penalty. The Judiciary Committee will vote on the bill in coming weeks.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has expressed his support for repeal of the capital punishment statute. However at a press briefing this morning, Malloy declined to say whether he would sign a bill that applies to those currently on death row or awaiting trial for capital offenses, in addition to a bill that repeals the death penalty for future crimes.