Letter to Darien Times On Capital Punishment

February, 14, 2011

To the Editor:

Given that the number of people exonerated from death row is now 140 (fourteen of which, alone, have been proven innocent due to DNA testing), Carlo Leone's and Bob Kolenberg's conditional support for the death penalty ("27th District: Special election candidates debate in Darien", February 10, 2011), is becoming more untenable all the time.

As of last March, New Mexico (following New York and New Jersey) became the third state in two years to abolish the death penalty, bringing the total remaining that still apply capital punishment down to thirty-five. Aside from the realities that capital punishment is expensive, cruel and does little to deter the crimes that currently invoke it, New Jersey's own backing of abolishment is especially instructive for Connecticut, as the Garden State's system of capital punishment is virtually identical to our own--with the exception that no one in New Jersey ever volunteered to be executed (New Jersey has executed no one in the modern era).

New Jersey's decision resulted from wide recognition, both on the part of the petitioning public and Assemblymen Wilfredo Caraballo (D) and Christopher Bateman (R) that the death penalty fails to provide closure to families and is prone to arbitrary decisions, leading to racial and geographical disparities.

Kirk Bloodsworth stated it more plainly before a Fairfield audience last month, while recounting his traumatic experiences in prison as the first death row inmate to be freed by DNA evidence: “I work with people to try and abolish the death penalty because of one fact: We could execute an innocent person. We have a death row population of 3,500 and a prison population of 2.5 million. The risk is too great for error."

Rolf Maurer
Candidate for Connecticut State Senate (District 27)
Connecticut Green Party