Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy quietly signed a bill Wednesday repealing Connecticut's death penalty.  The state has had the death penalty since the colonial era, when a Native American named Napauduck was hanged for murder in 1639.  Stories here and here.

The new legislation makes life in prison without the possibility of release the highest form of legal punishment in Connecticut.  It applies only to future cases, so the 11 men already on death row will remain there and could be put to death (pending outcomes of appeals, clemency, etc.).

The low-key bill-signing came the same day as a new Quinnipiac University poll showing nearly two-thirds of Connecticut voters support capital punishment.  But the same poll found opinions were far more divided when respondents were asked to choose between the death penalty and life in prison without the possibility of release.  Given that choice, 46% chose the death penalty while 46% chose life in prison without possibility of release.

Connecticut joins 16 other states and the rest of the industrialized world in abolishing the death penalty.  Illinois, New Mexico, and New Jersey have all abolished capital punishment in recent years, and a court declared New York's death penalty law unconstitutional in 2004.  California will have a capital punishment referendum on the ballot in November.

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