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.

Resources

• Department of Corrections
• Prosecutors
• Public defend­er’s office
• Victims’ ser­vices

Connecticut Execution Totals Since 1976