04-05-2012, 06:16 AM
(CNN) -- The Connecticut Senate voted 20-16 early Thursday morning on a bill that would do away with the death penalty and make the state the fifth in five years to abolish capital punishment. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives, where it is also expected to pass.
Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, has vowed to sign the measure into law should it reach his desk, his office said.
"For everyone, it's a vote of conscience," said Senate President Donald Williams Jr., a Democrat who says he's long supported a repeal. "We have a majority of legislators in Connecticut in favor of this so that the energies of our criminal justice system can be focused in a more appropriate manner."
In 2009, state lawmakers in both houses tried to pass a similar bill, but were ultimately blocked by then-Gov. Jodi Rell, a Republican.
In the last five years, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Illinois have repealed capital punishment, with California voters expected to take up the measure in November.
The death penalty has also been abolished in the District of Columbia and 12 other states: Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Capital punishment has existed in Connecticut since its colonial days. But the state was forced to review its death penalty laws beginning in 1972 when a Supreme Court decision required greater consistency in its application. A moratorium was then imposed until a 1976 court decision upheld the constitutionality of capital punishment.
Since then, Connecticut juries have handed down 15 death sentences. Of those, only one person has actually been executed, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonpartisan group that studies death penalty laws.
Michael Ross, a convicted serial killer, was put to death by lethal injection in 2005 after giving up his appeals.
"It's not a question of whether it's morally wrong, it's just that it isn't working," said Richard Dieter, the group's executive director. "I think when you hear of 15 to 20 years of uncertain appeals, that's not closure and that's not justice. It's a slow, grinding process."
Eleven people are currently on death row in Connecticut, including Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, who both were sentenced for their roles in the 2007 murders of the Petit family in Cheshire, Connecticut.
The high-profile case drew national attention and sparked conversations about home security and capital punishment.
Dr. William Petit, the sole survivor in that attack, has remained a staunch critic of repeal efforts.
"We believe in the death penalty because we believe it is really the only true, just punishment for certain heinous and depraved murders," Petit told CNN affiliate WFSB.