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In 2012, Connecticut replaced capital punishment with the punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole for future crimes.
Three of the more notorious inmates released from Death Row as a result of Thursday's ruling are:
- Russell Peeler Jr., who ordered his brother to kill Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son, Leroy "B.J." Brown Jr., in their Bridgeport home on Jan. 8, 1999. The boy was expected to be the key witness against Peeler in the fatal shooting of Clarke's boyfriend.
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Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, who were sentenced to death for killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Michaela and Hayley in the Cheshire home invasion murders.
"When Connecticut’s law was passed, it did not apply to the 11 inmates currently serving on death row," Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a statement Thursday. "We will continue to look to the judicial system for additional guidance on this rule. But it’s clear that those currently serving on death row will serve the rest of their life in a Department of Correction facility with no possibility of ever obtaining freedom."
The 92-page ruling came in an appeal from Eduardo Santiago, who is on death row for a 2000 murder-for-hire killing in West Hartford and whose attorneys had argued that any execution carried out after the state's repeal would constitute cruel and unusual punishment, NBC Connecticut said.
“Today is a somber day where our focus should not be on the 11 men sitting on death row, but with their victims and those surviving families members," Malloy said. "My thoughts and prayers are with them during what must be a difficult day.”
In the last 54 years, Connecticut has only executed two inmates, both of whom volunteered for the execution, the governor said. Joseph Taborsky was executed in 1960 and Michael Ross in 2005 after waiving their rights to further appeals.
Read the full NBC Connecticut story here.
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