HARTFORD, Conn., April 12 (UPI) -- Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's signature is all that's needed to repeal the death penalty in Connecticut after a state House of Representatives vote Wednesday night.
House members debate for more than 9 hours and then voted 86-62 in favor of getting rid of the death penalty for future crimes, The Connecticut Mirror reported. Seventy-eight of 99 Democrats and eight of 52 Republicans voted for the measure, which passed the state Senate 20-16 last week.
Malloy has said he would sign the legislation that will make Connecticut the 17th state to abolish capital punishment, the online newspaper said.
"Despite having the death penalty in our society here in Connecticut for several hundred years ... it certainly hasn't eradicated evil from our society," the Mirror quoted House Majority Leader J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, as saying. "If we as human beings created laws that reciprocate the evil that's perpetrated on society, are they really protecting us? ... Our laws more project our better selves."
The state's 11 current death row inmates will not be helped by the new repeal.
