State & Federal
Connecticut
History of the Death Penalty
In colonial Connecticut, capital crimes included idolatry, witchcraft, and blasphemy.
Famous Cases
The first person executed for witchcraft in what is now the United States was Achsah Young, who was executed in Hartford in 1647.
In 1786, Hannah Occuish, a 12-year-old Native American girl, was hanged in New London for the murder of a young white girl. She may have been the youngest person ever executed in the United States.
The last person executed in Connecticut who had exhausted all appeals was Frank Wojulewicz, who was executed in 1959 for murdering a police officer and bystander while committing a robbery. The two men executed since then both dropped appeals and “volunteered” for execution.
Notable Commutations/Clemencies
Connecticut is one of five states that gives clemency authority to a board, rather than the governor. No death row prisoner was granted clemency during the period in which the death penalty had been reinstated.
Milestones in Abolition/Reinstatement
In 2009, the Connecticut legislature passed a bill to abolish the death penalty, but the bill was vetoed by Governor M. Jodi Rell.
In 2012, Connecticut abolished the death penalty for future crimes. Eleven men remained on death row until 2015, when the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled by a vote of 4 – 3 in State v. Santiago that the death penalty violated the state constitution. The Court indicated at that time that the remaining death row prisoners were entitled to be resentenced to life without parole. However, after one of the justices in the Santiago majority left the Court, prosecutors sought and were granted permission to re-open the issue. On May 26, 2016, in State v. Peeler, the Court reaffirmed its holding in Santiago by a vote of 5 – 2.
The remaining death-row prisoners were resentenced one at a time, as their cases were decided in the lower courts. On December 6, 2018, Richard Roszkowski became the last of the eleven formerly death-row prisoners to be formally resentenced to life without possibility of release.
Other Interesting Facts
Connecticut carried out only one execution in the modern era of the death penalty. Michael Ross was executed by lethal injection in 2005 after giving up his appeals.
Bear Mountain. Public domain photo.
Connecticut Execution Totals Since 1976
News & Developments
News
Jan 13, 2025
Connecticut Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Prohibit the Production and Manufacturing of Lethal Injection Drugs and Other Materials for Executions
On January 10, 2025, three Connecticut lawmakers introduced a bill that would make it illegal to manufacture and sell any drugs or medical devices in the state meant to carry out the death penalty. In 2024, Connecticut-based company Absolute Standards was identified as the source of lethal injection drugs used in 13 federal executions in 2020 and 2021. In a letter to the bill’s sponsors, John Criscio, President of Absolute Standards, said the company ceased production…
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Jul 02, 2024
Federal Execution-Drug Supplier Says It Will No Longer Produce Pentobarbital for Executions
Connecticut-based company Absolute Standards, which was identified as the source of lethal injection drugs used in 13 federal executions in 2020 and 2021, has said it will no longer produce the drug used in executions — pentobarbital. In a letter to two Connecticut lawmakers, John Criscio, president of Absolute Standards, said the company ceased producing pentobarbital in December 2020, and has “no intention to resume any production or sale of pentobarbital.” Mr. Criscio’s letter explains that…
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News
Aug 01, 2022
Massachusetts Formally Exonerates Last ‘Witch’ Wrongfully Condemned During Salem Hysteria. Will Connecticut Follow Suit?
As Massachusetts formally exonerated the last person condemned for witchcraft in the colony, efforts are under way to clear the names of the 46 people wrongfully charged with witchcraft in neighboring Connecticut during the 17th century Puritan witch…
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Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of August 3, 2020
NEWS (8/6/20) — Connecticut: The Connecticut Supreme Court granted a new trial to former death-row prisoner Lazale Ashby. The court ruled that the prosecution had violated Ashby’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel “by using a jailhouse informant … to deliberately elicit certain incriminating statements from the defendant.” The court said that the informant, who had a past history of providing assistance to prosecutors, had been acting as an agent of the state when he extracted incriminating information from Ashby outside the presence of counsel. As a consequence, the court found, the evidence the informant provided was the product of an uncounseled interrogation and therefore was inadmissible.
Connecticut prospectively abolished the death penalty in 2015, and the state supreme court subsequently ruled that applying the repealed statute to those remaining on the state’s death row violated the state constitution. Ashby’s death sentence was vacated as a result of that ruling, and he was resentenced to life without parole on June 20, 2018. However, the abolition of the death penalty did not affect the status of Ashby’s court challenges to the constitutionality of his conviction.
Jan 15, 2025
Idaho Reckons with High Costs of the Death Penalty
News
Jan 12, 2018
Experience Shows No “Parade of Horribles” Following Abolition of the Death Penalty
States that have recently abolished the death penalty have not experienced the “parade of horribles” — including increased murder rates — predicted by death-penalty proponents, according to death-penalty experts who participated in a panel discussion at the 2017 American Bar Association national meeting in New York City. Instead, the panelists said, abolition appears to have created opportunities to move forward with other broader criminal justice…
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