Connecticut and Capital Punishment
Recently, Connecticut ended future imposition of the death penalty for murder under special circumstances. However, I have read news reports that they have replaced death with life in solitary confinement with no chance of parole. The Governor was quoted in the web site Solitary Watch as saying “Going forward, we will have a system that allows us to put these people away for life, in living conditions none of us would want to experience.…Let’s throw away the key and have them spend the rest of their natural lives in jail."
It seems to me that while the state has ended the imposition of the death penalty, they have not ended capital punishment, but have redefined it to mean that the prisoner will spend the rest of his/her life under inhumane conditions. Solitary Watch has also expressed the opinion that "Even for steadfast opponents of long-term solitary confinement, it would be difficult to argue that this is not the lesser of two evils. But it is an evil nonetheless, in that it replaces the death penalty with a lifetime in conditions that are widely considered to constitute torture." Does anyone know if Church authorities in Connecticut have commented on the part of the legislation that specifies life in solitary, or specifically on the Governor's statement?
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