Some disturbing statistics: Connecticut is tied with Texas(!) for the highest percentage (70%) of death row inmates who are minorities, and half of Connecticut's death row inmates come from Waterbury, even though we have only 3% of the state's population (see http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/48753351-naacp-decries-connecticut-governor-jodi-rell-for-veto-of-anti-death-penalty-legi# for that stats and story).
Considering that a good portion of the rest of the state loves to hate Waterbury, is someone from Waterbury more likely to receive a death sentence because he or she is from Waterbury?
4 comments:
Waterbury has a high number of death row inmates because our State's Attorney believes in pursuing capital punishment for horrendous crimes. While I personally disagree with capital punishment, it is the law, and all of the Waterbury-area death row inmates confessed to their crimes. There is not a shred of doubt over whether any of these individuals committed these crimes.
It would be better to stick with news articles (try this one from ConnPost, http://www.connpost.com/localnews/ci_12485938), instead of a press release from the NAACP that was published on the internet. It might be slightly-less biased.
The fact that they would blatantly distort the truth by comparing CT to TX, a state which has a population 6 times larger than ours (second largest in the U.S.) and 3,630% more death row inmates speaks about the reliability of the "facts" they are presenting. Not to mention that there are obvious cultural and demographic differences between CT and TX that are being overlooked.
Capital punishment in CT is certainly worth debating, but people need to cast aside the spin from both sides and stick with actual facts. How many people are actually on death row in CT? How many people have actually been executed in the past 30 years?
While Connecticut has dramatically fewer (only 10) people on death row than Texas, those ten people are still on death row, seven of them are minorities, and half of them are from Waterbury.
I'm not questioning whether or not they did the crimes they have been convicted of. I'm questioning why their sentences were so severe. I sincerely doubt that Waterbury's criminals are committing significantly more horrendous crimes than those in Bridgeport, Hartford or New Haven, but when half the death row inmates are from Waterbury, it certainly does look that way, just as the fact that the majority of them being minorities helps foster prejudices against blacks and Latinos.
On a side note: when the news about the horrendous Pettit murders in Cheshire first became known, there was some relief that the criminals weren't from Waterbury and were white. In predominantly white suburbs of Waterbury, there are a lot of people who are afraid to come into Waterbury.
Todd Rizzo beat some little kids head in with a hammer so he could see how it felt to kill someone.
He shouldn't be analyzed from the viewpoint of being from Watebury. He should be seen as someone who earned his status.
If taking a life is a crime, then why is it okay to take the life of someone who committed that crime?
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