http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Chion/do%20120117%20death%20penalty.mp3
Senator Ed Meyer introduced a bill on Tuesday to repeal the death penalty in Connecticut. He says the future of capital punishment in the state may depend on two key lawmakers.
Last year – just as Connecticut was poised to repeal the death penalty, and as jury selection was underway in the Cheshire triple murder case - Senator Ed Meyer received a phone call from his son.
Attorney Jeff Meyer was representing Dr. William Petit, sole survivor of the 2007 Cheshire home invasion. He asked his father to set up a meeting between Dr. Petit and two senators, Andrew Maynard and Edith Prague, to try and persuade them to uphold the death penalty.
"So even through I’m a major proponent of repeal, I did introduce them and ironically Senator Maynard and Senator Prague changed their mind and voted to keep the death penalty."
Both Maynard and Prague had supported repeal before speaking with Dr. Petit.
Now Senator Myer has introduced a new bill for the next legislative session that would abolish capital punishment in Connecticut. The maximum sentence would be life in prison without parole.
Meyer says he thinks there are enough votes for the bill to pass in the House, "and the concern is in the Senate. So I think repeal of the death penalty in Connecticut will hinge on whether or not those two will come back to favoring repeal."
A bill to abolish the death penalty reached the desk of former Governor Jodi Rell in 2009, but she vetoed in part she said, because of the Cheshire murders.
Governor Dannel Malloy recently addressed the issue with host John Dankosky on WNPR’s "Where We Live".
Dankosky: "We’ve spoken before about the fact that you would consider a bill to abolish the death penalty if it came to your desk..."
Malloy: "I didn’t say I would consider it. I said I would sign it if it was proactive in nature and if that ever reaches my desk, I will in fact sign it."
Meyer’s bill is proactive, so it only affects future cases, not inmates currently on death row, including the men convicted in the Cheshire murders.
