Connecticut Supreme Court Overturns Death Penalty in State

The Connecticut Supreme Court has overturned the death penalty in the state, ruling today in a 4-3 decision that the punishment is unconstitutional.

Currently, there are 11 inmates on death row in the state, including one who has been there since 1989. They will not be executed for their crimes.

The ruling means the 11 men on the state's death row will no longer be subject to execution orders. Those inmates include Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes, who were sentenced to die for killing a mother and her two daughters in a 2007 home invasion in Cheshire.

The repeal had eliminated the death penalty while setting life in prison without the possibility of release as the punishment for crimes formerly considered capital offenses.

Connecticut's last execution, of octuple-murderer Michael Bruce Ross, was carried out in 2005.