![]() ![]() Michael Ross was executed by lethal injection in 2005 after giving up his appeals. Other Interesting FactsĬonnecticut carried out only one execution in the modern era of the death penalty. 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. ![]() The remaining death-row prisoners were resentenced one at a time, as their cases were decided in the lower courts. Peeler, the Court reaffirmed its holding in Santiago by a vote of 5-2. However, after one of the justices in the Santiago majority left the Court, prosecutors sought and were granted permission to re-open the issue. The Court indicated at that time that the remaining death row prisoners were entitled to be resentenced to life without parole. Santiago that the death penalty violated the state constitution. Eleven men remained on death row until 2015, when the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled by a vote of 4-3 in State v. In 2012, Connecticut abolished the death penalty for future crimes. In 2009, the Connecticut legislature passed a bill to abolish the death penalty, but the bill was vetoed by Governor M. No death row prisoner was granted clemency during the period in which the death penalty had been reinstated. Notable Commutations/ClemenciesĬonnecticut is one of five states that gives clemency authority to a board, rather than the governor. The two men executed since then both dropped appeals and “volunteered” for execution. 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. She may have been the youngest person ever executed in the United States. In 1786, Hannah Occuish, a 12-year-old Native American girl, was hanged in New London for the murder of a young white girl. The first person executed for witchcraft in what is now the United States was Achsah Young, who was executed in Hartford in 1647. Good behavior, that’s a laugh,” he said.In colonial Connecticut, capital crimes included idolatry, witchcraft, and blasphemy. “Imagine that your family member was murdered and the perpetrator is going to walk out of prison for good behavior. the shooting, and killing of the boyfriend of Ms. He also was sentenced to 105 years in prison for killing Snead. But he was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release in 2016 because the state abolished the death penalty. And now the man accused of killing them may be coming back into the community, he said. Russell Peeler, a notorious drug dealer was in jail awaiting trial on a murder charge, i.e. Russell Peeler was convicted and sentenced to death for ordering the killings. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about them,” he said. He still has photos of them all together in his Florida home. “He and his brother terrorized the streets of Bridgeport, destroying the very community that raised him, disgracing the memory of their mother who was a Bridgeport police officer, and leaving drugs and bodies in their wake.”Īlthough it’s been 22 years since the murders, Oswald Clarke said he is still haunted by the deaths of his sister and nephew. ![]() “The defendant is not a nonviolent drug offender for whom this legislation was intended,” they wrote in a letter to federal authorities. Peeler initially requested his release from the federal sentence under the First Step Act, which aimed to address concerns that too many Americans were imprisoned for nonviolent crimes as a result of the drug war.īridgeport State’s Attorney Joseph Corradino and Assistant State’s Attorney Susan Campbell opposed Peeler’s release under the federal act citing Peeler’s violent criminal history. He is requesting that the federal sentence be ended so that he will go free when the state sentence is completed next year. He would be scheduled to be released next April, according to court documents, but is also being held in prison on a consecutive 35-year federal sentence for drug dealing. His initial death sentence was later converted to life in prison without the possibility of release after the death sentence was abolished in the state.īut Adrian Peeler, who was identified by an eyewitness as the shooter, was only convicted of conspiracy to commit murder by a jury in Waterbury and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. ![]() Russell Peeler was later convicted of ordering the murders of Clarke and Brown in state Superior Court. “He doesn’t deserve to have the privilege to be out in the free world.” Lee is a key witness in the states case against Russell Peeler Jr., 27, and Adrian Peeler, 23, who police say have murdered or threatened numerous witnesses to a slaying that started with. “No, no, no, there is no way he should get out early,” said Clarke. Clark’s brother, Oswald Clarke, said he was adamantly opposed to Peeler’s release. ![]()
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