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Revision as of 00:56, 10 December 2011

Capital punishment in Connecticut currently exists as an available sanction for a criminal defendant upon conviction for the commission of a capital offense. Connecticut, along with New Hampshire, are the only two New England states that maintain a death penalty. Since the 1976 United States Supreme Court decision in Gregg v. Georgia, Connecticut has executed one individual. Death row inmates are placed in the Connecticut Department of Correction system. The state's death row for men currently houses ten male inmates, who are incarcerated at Northern Correctional Institution in the town of Somers. Women who receive the death penalty would go to the York Correctional Institution, the only state prison for women in Connecticut. The method of execution currently utilized for capital punishment in Connecticut is lethal injection. As in any other state, people who are under 18 at the time of commission of the capital crime [1] or mentally retarded[2] are constitutionally precluded from being executed.

History

Between 1639 and 2005, Connecticut performed 126 executions. Twenty-four executions occurred in Connecticut Colony, prior to its statehood. The remaining 102 executions occurred after Connecticut's 1788 admission to the Union as the fifth state of the United States.[3] Contrary to popular belief, Adonijah Bailey was not the oldest person executed at age 79 in 1824; instead, he was tried and sentenced to death at age 80 in January 1825 for the murder of Jeremiah W. Pollock, and hung himself on May 24, over 2 weeks before he was to be executed.[4][5] The title of the oldest person executed goes instead to Gershon Marx, hanged on May 18, 1905, for murder at age 73.[6] The following are historical milestones of capital punishment in Connecticut.

Year Date Milestone Name Race Sex Age Method Offense
1639 January 30 first person to be executed Nepauduck Native American Male Hanging Murder
1647 May 26 first female to be executed Young, Achsah White Female Hanging Witchcraft
1753 November 21 last adult female to be executed by hanging Bramble, Sarah White Female Hanging Murder
1786 December 20 youngest person to be executed Ocuish, Hannah Native American Female 12 Hanging Murder
1817 November 30 last person to be executed for a crime other than murder Adams, Amos Black Male 28 Hanging Rape
1905 May 18 oldest person to be executed Marx, Gershon White Male 73 Hanging Murder
1937 February 10 first person to be executed by electric chair McElroy, James White Male 45 Electric Chair Murder
1960 May 17 last person to be executed by electric chair (as well as the last pre-Furman execution in Connecticut) Taborsky, Joseph White Male 36 Electric Chair Murder
2005 May 13 first person to be executed by lethal injection Ross, Michael White Male 45 Lethal Injection Murder

Notable executions

Several notable executions have occurred in both Connecticut Colony and in the state of Connecticut, as indicated below.

  • Hannah Ocuish — Ocuish (born 1774) was a mentally retarded Pequot Indian girl who was executed in Connecticut in 1786. She was accused of killing the young daughter of a prominent white family after quarreling with her over some strawberries. At the time of her execution, Ocuish was 12 years and 9 months old. She is believed to be the youngest person legally executed in America.
  • Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky — Taborsky is an anomaly in Connecticut death penalty lore. He is the only convict sent to death row not once, but twice, for different crimes.[7] Taborsky earned his nickname due to the savagery of the killings that condemned him to death.
  • Michael Bruce Ross — The execution of Ross was the first in Connecticut (and in all of New England) since 1960. It was also the first execution in Connecticut administered by lethal injection. As of 2011, Ross is the most recent inmate executed in Connecticut, although the state's death row houses ten convicted murderers who are in various stages of legal appeals.

Executions

Connecticut's first execution took place in 1639, while its most recent occurred in 2005. During the 366 years between 1639 and 2005, Connecticut has performed a total of 126 executions. This averages to be approximately one execution every three years. Throughout its history, Connecticut has employed various methods of execution.

Method of Execution Years Employed Number of Executions
Hanging 1639 to 1937 107
Electric Chair 1937 to 1995 18
Lethal Injection 1995 to 2005 1
Total: 366 Years 126 Executions

Ages of the condemned

The State of Connecticut legally executed one of the youngest persons in the United States. Native American 12-year-old girl Hannah Ocuish was hanged on December 20, 1786 in New London County for the murder of a young white girl.

Until the 2005 Roper v. Simmons decision, juveniles over the age of 16 could be sentenced to death because state law only required that the offender be tried in adult court to face the death penalty. However, no juveniles have been sentenced to death in the state in recent memory.[8]

Current status

Connecticut reinstated the death penalty on January 10, 1973.[9] Lethal injection replaced the electric chair, not used since Taborsky's execution, in 1960.[10]

On May 22, 2009, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a bill that would outlaw the death penalty, although it would not retroactively apply to the ten current Connecticut death row inmates. The bill was vetoed by Governor Jodi Rell.[11]

Unlike most of the other states, the Governor of Connecticut cannot commute the death sentence imposed under State law or pardon a death row inmate. This is determined by the Board of Clemency, on which the Governor does not sit. The other states where the Board has sole authority are Georgia and Idaho.[12]

Death row institutions

The male death row is located at the Northern Correctional Institution. In 1995 the male death row moved from Osborn Correctional Institution to Northern.[13] The execution chamber is located at Osborn.[14] The York Correctional Institution houses all female pretrial and sentenced prisoners in the state, regardless of security status, so a woman classified as a death row inmate would be housed in that prison.[15]

Capital punishment

In order to receive capital punishment in Connecticut, a defendant must be convicted of a capital felony accompanied by one or more aggravating factors that are not outweighed by mitigating factors. However, a person who is convicted of a capital felony can be sentenced to either the death penalty or to life imprisonment without the possibility of release.

Capital felonies

Connecticut's capital felony statute (Connecticut General Statute §53a-54b) outlines eight forms of murder that render a convicted individual eligible for capital punishment. Capital forms of murder, subject to the death penalty in Connecticut, include:

  • murder of a police officer or firefighter; murder of a prison employee by an inmate;
  • being paid to commit a murder; paying someone to commit a murder;
  • murder by an individual who has previously been convicted of murder; murder that occurs while committing a felony;
  • murder by an individual who is serving a sentence of life imprisonment;
  • murder of a kidnapping victim;
  • murder that occurs while committing a first-degree sexual assault;
  • murder of two or more people at the same time or in same transaction; and
  • murder of an individual under the age of 16.

Aggravating factors

In addition to conviction for a capital crime, the defendant must be found to have committed the murder with one or more aggravating factors. Such aggravating factors cannot be outweighed by any mitigating factors offered by the defendant. The only aggravating factors that the judge or jury can consider are the following:

  • the defendant committed the offense while committing or attempting to commit a felony (or in flight therefrom) and had previously been convicted of the same felony;
  • the defendant had been convicted of at least two other crimes previously, each of which involved serious bodily injury;
  • the defendant committed the offense while knowingly creating a risk of death to another person in addition to the victim of the offense;
  • the defendant committed the offense in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner;
  • the defendant procured someone else to commit the offense by paying or promising to pay anything of monetary value;
  • the defendant committed the offense in return for payment or the expectation of payment;
  • the defendant committed the offense with an assault weapon; and
  • the defendant murdered a police officer, firefighter, or prison employee in order to: avoid arrest, prevent detection of a crime, hamper or prevent the victim from carrying out official duties, or retaliate against the victim for performing official duties.

Mitigating factors

Inmates executed

The only person executed since 1977 in Connecticut was serial killer and rapist Michael Bruce Ross on May 13, 2005.[16]

No. Name Date of Execution Victims Governor
1 Ross, Michael Bruce May 13, 2005 Robin Stavinsky, April Brunais, Wendy Baribeault, and Leslie Shelley M. Jodi Rell

Crimes

Michael Bruce Ross (July 26, 1959 – May 13, 2005) was a serial killer from Brooklyn, Connecticut. Between 1981 and 1984, he murdered eight girls and women (aged 14 to 25) in Connecticut and New York. Their names are listed below. Of these eight murder victims, seven were also raped.

Number Date of Murder Name Age Hometown
1 May 12, 1981 Tu, Dzung Ngoc 25 Cornell University student
2 January 5, 1982 Williams, Tammy 17 Brooklyn, Connecticut
3 March 1982 Perrera, Paula 16 Wallkill, New York[disambiguation needed]
4 June 15, 1982 Taylor, Debra Smith 23 Griswold, Connecticut
5 November 1983 Stavinsky, Robin 19 Norwich, Connecticut
6 April 22, 1984 Brunais, April 14 Griswold, Connecticut
7 April 22, 1984 Shelley, Leslie 14 Griswold, Connecticut
8 June 13, 1984 Baribeault, Wendy 17 Griswold, Connecticut

Ross was apprehended on June 29, 1984, and confessed to all of the murders. He was tried and convicted of four of them: the Stavinsky, Brunais, Shelley, and Baribeault murders. He was sentenced to death on July 6, 1987, and spent the next 18 years on Connecticut's death row. Though he opposed the death penalty, Ross strongly supported his own death sentence in the last year of his life, saying that he wanted to spare his victims' families any more pain. Despite this, an hour before the execution was to take place in the early hours of January 26, 2005, Ross' lawyer, acting on behalf of Ross' father, obtained a two-day stay of execution. Ross was then scheduled to die by lethal injection on January 29, 2005, at 2:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. However, earlier in the day, the execution was again postponed because of doubts that Ross was mentally competent; having fought against his death sentence for 17 years, he suddenly waived his right to appeal. His lawyers claimed that Ross was incompetent to waive his appeals because he was suffering from death row syndrome. Ross was executed by lethal injection on May 13, 2005, at Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers, Connecticut. He was 45 years old. Ross did not request a special last meal before facing his execution, thereby dining on the regular prison meal of the day: turkey a la king with rice, mixed vegetables, white bread, fruit, and a beverage.[17] When asked if he would like to make a last statement, Ross did not say anything. Ross was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m. His remains were buried at the Benedictine Grange Cemetery in Redding, Connecticut. His execution was the first in Connecticut (and in the whole of New England) since 1960.

Inmates on death row

Inmates sentenced to death

This table is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

There are currently ten inmates sentenced to death in Connecticut.

# Name Race Sex Date of birth Current age Date of offense Age at offense Date in prison Years in prison Date of sentencing Age at sentencing Years on death row Location Capital felony Aggravating factor
1 Ashby, Lazale Black Male November 28, 1984 39 December 2, 2002 18 September 4, 2003 21 March 28, 2008 23 16 Hartford Murder during sexual assault Heinous, cruel, or depraved murder
2 Breton, Robert White Male December 10, 1946 77 December 13, 1987 41 December 15, 1987 36 October 27, 1989 42 34 Waterbury Murder with multiple victims Heinous, cruel, or depraved murder
3 Campbell, Jessie Black Male September 9, 1979 45 August 26, 2000 20 September 5, 2000 24 August 16, 2007 27 17 Hartford Murder with multiple victims Murder creating risk of death to others
4 Cobb, Sedrick Black Male February 3, 1962 62 December 16, 1989 27 August 13, 1991 29 33 Waterbury Murder, Kidnapping, and Rape
5 Hayes, Steven[18] White Male May 30, 1963 61 July 23, 2007 44 July 23, 2007 17 December 2, 2010 47 13 Cheshire Six capital felonies Heinous, cruel, or depraved murder
6 Peeler, Russell Black Male January 15, 1972 52 January 8, 1999 26 December 10, 2007 35 16
7 Reynolds, Richard Black Male November 8, 1968 55 December 18, 1992 24 April 13, 1995 26 29
8 Rizzo, Todd White Male October 11, 1978 45 September 30, 1997 18 August 13, 1999 20 25
9 Santiago, Eduardo White Male September 12, 1979 45 December, 2000 21 January 31, 2005 25 19
10 Webb, Daniel Black Male July 21, 1962 62 August 24, 1989 27 September 12, 1991 29 33
11 Komisarjevsky, Joshua White Male August 10, 1980 44 July 23, 2007 26 July 23, 2007 17 December 9, 2011 31 12 Cheshire Six capital felonies Heinous, cruel, or depraved murder

Crimes

  • Lazale Delane Ashby — Ashby was condemned to death on March 28, 2008; he was convicted of raping and murdering his 21-year-old neighbour, Elizabeth Garcia, in her Hartford apartment on December 2, 2002. The crime occurred four days after Ashby's 18th birthday.[19] [citation needed][20]
  • Robert Breton, Sr. — Breton was sentenced to death on October 27, 1989. He was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of capital felony for the December 13, 1987, beating and stabbing deaths of his 38-year-old ex-wife, JoAnn Breton, and their 16-year-old son, Robert Breton, Jr. [4][19][citation needed][20]
  • Jessie Campbell III — Campbell was condemned to death on August 16, 2007; he was convicted of capital felony, murder, attempted murder, first-degree assault, and weapons violations for the August 26, 2000, shooting deaths in Hartford of 20-year-old LaTaysha Logan and 18-year-old Desiree Privette and the shooting of Privette's aunt, Carolyn Privette.[19][citation needed][20]
  • Sedrick "Ricky" Cobb — Cobb was sentenced to death on August 13, 1991. The former deliveryman from Naugatuck was convicted of the rape and murder of 23-year-old Julia Ashe of Watertown, whom he kidnapped from a Waterbury department store parking lot on December 16, 1989. [5] [19][citation needed][20]
  • Russell Peeler, Jr. — Peeler was condemned to death on December 10, 2007; he was convicted of ordering his younger brother to kill Karen Clarke and her eight-year-old son, Leroy "B.J." Brown, Junior, in their Bridgeport duplex on January 8, 1999. The boy was expected to be the key witness against Peeler in the fatal shooting of Clarke's boyfriend. Peeler is the only inmate on Connecticut's Death Row who did not actually commit murder.[21] Rather, he ordered his brother to commit the murder. [19][citation needed][20]
  • Richard Reynolds — Reynolds, a Brooklyn, New York, crack dealer, was condemned to death on April 13, 1995. He was convicted in the December 18, 1992, murder of 34-year-old Waterbury Police Officer Walter T. Williams.[19] While being searched by Williams, Reynolds bumped against him to determine if the officer was wearing a bulletproof vest. Reynolds then shot Williams point-blank in the head with a handgun.[22][20]
  • Todd Rizzo — Rizzo confessed to, and was convicted and condemned to death on August 13, 1999 for, the September 30, 1997 murder of 13-year-old Stanley Edwards of Waterbury. He lured Edwards into his backyard under the guise of hunting snakes and then hit him 13 times with a three-pound sledgehammer. He was not yet 19 years old at the time of the crime.[19][20]
  • Eduardo Santiago — Santiago was condemned to death on January 31, 2005; he was convicted of capital felony and murder charges after shooting Joseph Niwinski in the left temple as he slept in his West Hartford apartment in December 2000.[19] Prosecutors say Santiago carried out a murder-for-hire scheme in which he agreed to kill Niwinski in exchange for a broken snowmobile and his credit card debt being paid off.[23][20]
  • Daniel Webb — Webb was condemned to death on September 12, 1991; he was convicted of kidnapping, rape and murder for the August 24, 1989 slaying in Hartford of Diane Gellenbeck, a 37-year-old Connecticut National Bank vice president.[19] Prior to this, Webb already had an extensive criminal record including a 1983 robbery conviction, a 1984 rape and kidnapping conviction, and an arrest in 1987 for rape. While out on bail after the 1987 arrest, he raped and murdered Gellenbeck.[20]

Inmates removed from death row

  • Colon, Ivo — In 2000, a jury sentenced Ivo Colon to death for the 1998 murder of his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter, Keriana Tellado, in Waterbury. In 2004, the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned Colon's death sentence and ordered a new penalty hearing. The State's Attorney eventually decided not to seek the death penalty again. In a subsequent retrial of the penalty hearing, a plea bargain was reached, and Colon received two life sentences.
  • Courchesne, Robert — Courchesne was convicted of capital felony by a three-judge panel in the September 15, 1998, deaths of Demetris Rodgers and her baby. Rodgers was eight months pregnant when she was stabbed over a $410 drug debt. Her baby, Antonia, was delivered by emergency Caesarean section minutes after her death, and supposedly died 42 days later.[19] However, on June 4, 2010, Courchesne's death sentence was overturned by the Connecticut Supreme Court, who ruled that the state did not show that Antonia was born alive after he stabbed her pregnant mother to death; upheld his conviction in Rodgers' murder; and ordered a new trial.[24]
  • Johnson, Terry — In 1993, Terry Johnson was sentenced to death for the June 5, 1991, murder of Connecticut State Trooper Russell Bagshaw in Windham. In May 2000, his sentence was reduced to life in prison without the possibility of release. Terry Johnson, and his brother Duane Johnson, were convicted of murdering Bagshaw while burglarizing a gun shop. Trooper Bagshaw interrupted the Johnson brothers as they were stealing guns from the shop. Terry Johnson fired 19 times in the darkness with a semiautomatic pistol, killing Bagshaw before he could get out of his cruiser. One bullet found a gap in the trooper's bulletproof vest.

See also

References

  1. ^ Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005)
  2. ^ Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002)
  3. ^ Regional Studies Northeast
  4. ^ http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/RIGENWEB/2006-03/1142469753
  5. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=lGZGAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA4&lpg=RA1-PA4&dq=adonijah+bailey&source=bl&ots=hMQbqnGLs2&sig=SKpjCZCu6MXtKSvooPhkzySmDR0&hl=en&ei=Etn7TPOzFYL98AaP14ndCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CEsQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=adonijah%20bailey&f=false
  6. ^ http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/msg01797.html
  7. ^ [1][dead link]
  8. ^ "Execution of Juveniles in the U.S. and other Countries | Death Penalty Information Center". Deathpenaltyinfo.org. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
  9. ^ Death Penalty Information Center
  10. ^ [2][dead link]
  11. ^ Rell Vows to Veto Ban on Death Penalty in Connecticut
  12. ^ Clemency
  13. ^ "Northern Correctional Institution." Connecticut Department of Correction. Retrieved on August 16, 2010.
  14. ^ "Administration of Capital Punishment Directive Number 6.15." Connecticut Department of Correction. October 19, 2004. 1/9. Retrieved on August 16, 2010. "Execution Area. A series of four (4) contiguous rooms in the Osborn Correctional Institution comprised of the..."
  15. ^ "York Correctional Institution." Connecticut Department of Correction. Retrieved on November 9, 2010. "The York Correctional Institution is a high-security facility. It serves as the state's only institution for female offenders. It serves all superior courts in Connecticut and manages all pretrial and sentenced female offenders, whatever their security level."
  16. ^ Michael Ross - Selected Chronology, CT State Library
  17. ^ Michael Bruce Ross #966
  18. ^ Aliyah Shahid (December 2, 2010). "Steven Hayes sentenced to death in Connecticut home invasion, murders of mom, daughters of Dr. Petit". NYDailyNews.com. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i j [3][dead link]
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i "On Connecticut's Death Row". Hartford Courant. October 23, 2011. pp. A1. Retrieved on October 23, 2011
  21. ^ http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=7473710
  22. ^ "Officer's Killer Sentenced to Die - NYTimes.com". Connecticut; Waterbury (Conn): New York Times. 1995-03-30. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
  23. ^ "Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal". projo.com. 2005-01-30. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
  24. ^ http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/crime/conviction-death-row-inmate-courchesne-overturned


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