The Connecticut Supreme Court has been asked to revisit its 2012 death penalty repeal in in light of the ambiguous legal status of 11 inmates who were in death row at that time. State prosecutors argue that the repeal applied only to future crimes and their perpetrators, while the defense attorneys of the 11 inmates counter that its immediate implementation spared the lives of every prisoner who could have been publicly executed, including their clients.
According to Yahoo News, State Prosecutor Harry Weller made a case that the August 2012 4-3 ruling by Hartford-based high court, which effectively abolished the death penalty in Connecticut, covered only criminals convicted after that date. No convicted criminal has been sentenced with capital punishment since that time. The hardest punishment being given out today is life imprionsment in maximum-penalty prisons. Meanwhile, those who had been in death row and were granted a second chance at life by the repeal were segregated from the other prisoners and sent into protective custody.
At the center of this argument are 11 inmates who were set to receive lethal injection during the time of the repeal. The New Haven Register points to Russell Peeler, one of the inmates, as the center of the legal maelstrom. Peeler had arranged for the shooting deaths of Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son, Leroy Brown. Prior to their murders, he had already been convicted for two capital felonies.
Still, Fox 61 reports that the defense attorneys of Peeler and company remain confident about their chances. Defense lawyer Mark Rademacher maintains that the battle is almost over, and that the burden of the argument falls heavily on the shoulders of the state prosecutors. At the same time, he says that the legal and political wrangling can last anytime from a period of a few months to a couple of years
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