THE DEATH PENALTY: REPUBLICANS VS. DEMOCRATS, CONSERVATIVES VS. LIBERALS

In 2009, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell vetoed a bill to abolish the death penalty that was passed by the state’s Democrat controlled Senate and House of Representatives. In her veto message Gov. Rell, a Republican, said: "The death penalty sends a clear message to those who may contemplate such cold, calculated crimes. We will not tolerate those who have murdered in the most vile, dehumanizing fashion. We should not, will not, abide those who have killed for the sake of killing; to those who have taken a precious life and shattered the lives of many more.''

That was then and this is now. Connecticut is set to become the 17th state without a death penalty. On Thursday the state senate passed a bill to abolish the death penalty by a vote of 20-16. The heavily Democratic state House of Representatives is expected to pass the same bill in the coming weeks. And Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, the first Democratic governor elected in two decades, has already vowed to sign any bill that abolishes the death penalty.

The abolishment of the death penalty will be largely symbolic because in more than 50 years, Connecticut has executed just one prisoner. It is hard to imagine that the legislature and the governor would even consider abolishing the death penalty in light of the fact that Connecticut has produced two of the most vile and vicious sub-humans in the history of the U.S. Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, two parolees, are prime poster boys for the death penalty.

One night back in 2007, Hayes and Komisarjevsky broke into the home of William Petit, a prominent Connecticut physician, and held him, his wife, and their 17 and 11-year-old daughters captive. They split Dr. Petit’s forehead open with a bat. His wife and daughters were tortured. In a desperate attempt to save their lives, Petit’s wife withdrew $15,000 from the bank for these two pieces of shit. That money did not save them from a horrible fate.

Petit’s wife was raped and strangled to death. The 11-year-old daughter was also raped. The two pieces of shit set Petit’s house on fire. The doctor, who was tied up in the basement while the rest of his family was being held upstairs, managed to free himself and escaped just in the nick of time. His daughters died of smoke inhalation.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky were both convicted in separate trials and sentenced to death.

In 2009, Dr. Petit lobbied hard to defeat the legislature’s attempt to outlaw capital punishment. He has done the same this year. Dr. Petit said: "We believe in the death penalty because we believe it is really the only true, just punishment for certain heinous and depraved murders," Petit said Wednesday. "One thing you never hear the abolitionists talk about is the victims, almost never. The forgotten people. The people who died and can't be here to speak for themselves."

Although he failed to prevent the legislature from voting to abolish the death penalty and will not be able to dissuade Gov. Malloy from signing the bill, he did at least succeed in keeping the law from becoming retroactive so that it will not apply to the 11 prisoners that are now on death row. But with endless appeals, Dr. Petit could very well die before Hayes and Komisarjevsky are, if ever, executed.

The battle over the death penalty has been fought largely along political lines. Generally, the Republicans favor the ultimate punishment and the Democrats are strongly in favor of outlawing capital punishment.

Ideologically, conservatives are in favor of the death penalty and liberals are unalterably opposed to it. That is reflected in the U.S. Supreme Court where whenever the issue has come up, the conservative justices have voted to uphold capital punishment while the liberal justices have voted to outlaw it. And that is why Texas, a conservative state, is leading the nation in executions while Connecticut, a very liberal state, has executed only one prisoner in over 50 years and is now set to abolish the death penalty.

Because I am convinced that the death penalty does deter premeditated murders and killings committed during burglaries, robberies and rapes, I am an ardent supporter of capital punishment. And my support for the death penalty is not deterred by the possibility of an innocent person being put to death. Those of us who are fighting to keep the death penalty are, as Dr. Petit put it, speaking for "The people who died and can't be here to speak for themselves."