Connecticut High Court Revisits Death Penalty Issue
HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Connecticut's Supreme Court has revisited the issue of whether a 2012 state law repealing capital punishment for future crimes should apply to inmates who already were on death row at the time.
Arguments were held Thursday in the appeal of Russell Peeler Jr., who ordered the killings of a woman and her 8-year-old son.
Prosecutors argued the ban on executions should not apply to Peeler and the other 10 death row convicts.
Justices ruled 4-3 last year that the death row inmates could not be executed because the state law repealing the death penalty for future crimes was unconstitutional.
Russell was condemned to die for ordering the 1999 killings of Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son, who had been expected to testify against Peeler in a shooting case.
Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky was the last murderer to be forcibly put to death in the state, back in 1960. He had been convicted in a string of murders and robberies in the 1950s.
Serial killer Michael Ross was executed in 2005, after being convicted in a string of murders in Connecticut and New York between 1981 and 1984. But he waived all appeals and literally begged for death.
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