Some Quick Facts on the Issue:

• Innocence - Since 1973, 138 people have been exonerated and released from death row across the country. The problem of wrongful convictions in Connecticut first made headlines in the Peter Reilly case. In 1973, Reilly was convicted of murder and he was exonerated in 1976. Since the Reilly case at least eight people in Connecticut have been wronfgully convicted of the crimes of rape, murder, or both before being found innocent.
• Cost - Connecticut's death penalty system cost's the state approximately $4 million a year in legal expenses.
• Deterrence -  The majority of studies find that the death penalty has no deterrent effect over and above the alternative of life in prison without release.
• Victims' Families - The appeals process of the death penalty, to insure an innocent person is not wrongly convicted, with its seemingly lack of finality and continuing media exposure, inflicts emotional trauma on many family members. The current process also creates a hierarchy of victims. While every murder is a heinous crime to the victims family, very few murder cases appear worthy of the death penalty. The death penalty  divides victims into two groups, one worthy of the death penalty and the other not.