Connecticut does not have the death penalty. The state legislature abolished capital punishment in 2012, and the Connecticut Supreme Court cleared the remaining death row three years later. The last execution took place on May 13, 2005, when Michael Ross was put to death by lethal injection.1Connecticut State Library. Current Law – Capital Punishment in Connecticut The harshest sentence a Connecticut court can now impose is life in prison without the possibility of release.
How Connecticut Ended Capital Punishment
Governor Dannel Malloy signed Public Act 12-5 on April 25, 2012. The law replaced the crime of “capital felony” with “murder with special circumstances” and made life imprisonment without the possibility of release the maximum penalty. It applied only to crimes committed on or after that date, which left eleven people already sentenced to death on Connecticut’s death row.1Connecticut State Library. Current Law – Capital Punishment in Connecticut
The Connecticut Supreme Court resolved what to do with those inmates on August 13, 2015, in State v. Santiago. The court held that carrying out executions after abolition would violate the state constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment under Article First, Sections 8 and 9.1Connecticut State Library. Current Law – Capital Punishment in Connecticut Prosecutors asked the court to reconsider after a change in its membership, but on May 26, 2016, in State v. Peeler, the court reaffirmed Santiago by a 5–2 vote and ordered the remaining death-row inmates resentenced to life without release.2Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty Information Center – Connecticut
The Harshest Sentence Available Today
The crime that used to carry death now carries mandatory life without the possibility of release. It is called murder with special circumstances, and the sentence has no parole component and no suspension.3Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-35a – Imprisonment
A defendant who was eighteen or older at the time of the offense faces this charge if the killing fits one of the following categories:4Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-54b – Murder With Special Circumstances
- Killing a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or corrections employee acting within the scope of their duties.
- Murder for hire, whether as the person who paid or the person hired.
- Murder by someone previously convicted of intentional murder or felony murder.
- Murder committed by someone already serving a life sentence.
- Killing a kidnapping victim during the kidnapping or before the victim reaches safety.
- Murder committed during a sexual assault in the first degree.
- Two or more victims killed at the same time or in a single course of events.
- Murder of a child under sixteen.
Judges have no discretion to impose a lesser sentence once a jury convicts on one of these counts. There is also no mechanism, short of executive clemency, to shorten the sentence after it is imposed.
Federal Death Penalty Charges Are Still Possible
State abolition reaches only state court. The federal death penalty applies in every state, including those that have abolished capital punishment at the state level.5Death Penalty Information Center. Federal Death Penalty Federal capital crimes include certain acts of terrorism, espionage, treason, and large-scale drug trafficking that results in death.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3591 – Sentence of Death
A person charged with one of those crimes in Connecticut could face a death sentence in federal court even though no state judge in Connecticut can impose one. Since July 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice has maintained a moratorium on federal executions while it reviews policies and procedures, but the death penalty remains available as a federal sentence.