A Long Time to Wait on Death Penalty

"The Genius of Connecticut" inside the Capitol building in Hartford. Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

This month, the Connecticut legislature voted to repeal the state's death penalty. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has indicated he will sign the legislation when it reaches his desk.

I wrote the following letter, published by the Connecticut Post and the Stamford Advocate, in response to the historic repeal:

“Is it not absurd, that the laws, which detest and punish homicide, should, in order to prevent murder, publicly commit murder themselves?”

That was the question Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria asked in his groundbreaking 1764 essay, “On Crimes and Punishments,” which called for reforms to Europe's criminal justice system at a time when arbitrary sentences and torture were common. His work carries more weight than ever in Connecticut today.

Beccaria argued that the punishment of crimes should not pander to passions; rather, punishments should be based on rational principles. His treatise was key in shaping the U.S. Constitution and legal system.

In the essay, Beccaria made one of the first systematic arguments against the death penalty, writing that “the laws, which are intended to moderate the ferocity of mankind, should not increase it by examples of barbarity.”

Beccaria recognized that capital punishment doesn't deter crime. He also pointed out that the wretchedness of a life in prison is a much harsher punishment, since a man could steel himself against a single moment of death and, by turning to religion, even look forward to “eternal happiness upon the easy terms of repentance.”

That's exactly what Michael Ross, the last person to be executed in Connecticut, did when he joined a Roman Catholic monastic community in West Redding and waived his right to appeal, opting instead for relief in death.

It took 250 years, but in a few days Connecticut will finally catch up with the Enlightenment.