Malloy signs Death Penalty repeal

Today Gov. Danell Malloy signed the bill to repeal Connecticut's death penalty rule. Instead, criminals convicted of a capital offense will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In one swipe of his pen Malloy fixed these problems in the criminal justice system:

It takes so long for the current system to finish that anyone who appeals their capital sentence will almost certainly die of natural causes in prison before they run out of appeals.
It saves the state millions of dollars spent on nonsensical prosecutions AND defenses in these appeals.
It spares the family and friends of the victims the agony of going over ALL the evidence in court during every one of these appeals.
It completely removes the possibility of executing an innocent person, which has obviously happened far too many times already.

As a society, we need to continually strive to better ourselves. Killing someone for revenge isn't what a just society does. Taking away a person's freedom for the rest of their life if they kill someone IS what a just society should do.

Probably the one thing I personally would like to see is a "suicide option" included in the new law. This would be where a convicted killer facing life in prison is given the option of ending their own life in a humane and painless way.

Of course, this provocative course of action would necessitate appropriate safeguards, such as an extensive psychiatric evaluation and a mandatory waiting period of perhaps a year before allowing it. But I honestly think this is an option that should be discussed.

We all know the religious people would go nuts over this idea. The very same fundies who are calling for the Petit family's killers to be executed with a rusty butter knife and a hammer would have a literal shit fit over the concept of agreeing to self-euthanasia for "lifers". They want the state to be the killers, not the actual criminals.

But it is an idea that we should be grown-up enough to discuss.

What do you think?

Anyway, bravo to Mr. Malloy for going against popular opinion and signing the bill into law.