Connecticut 17th US state to abolish death penalty

Governor Dannel Malloy of Connecticut signed a bill into law on Wednesday 25th of April 2012 that abolishes the death penalty. (CNN)

The death penalty is replaced with life in prison without possibility of parole. (NBC)

The 17 US states that have abolished the death penalty are:

1. Michigan (1846)
2. Wisconsin (1853)
3. Maine (1887)
4. Minnesota (1911)
5. Alaska (1957)
6. Hawaii (1957)
7. Vermont (1964)
8. West-Virginia (1965)
9. Iowa (1965)
10. North Dakota (1973)
11. Rhode Island (1984)
12. Massachusetts (1984)
13. New Jersey (2007)
14. New York (2007)
15. New Mexico (2009)
16. Illinois (2011)
17. Connecticut (2012)

(To compare: Belgium was the last country from the West-European continent to remove the death penalty from its criminal law in 1996)


Sources:

• Connecticut becomes 17th state to abolish death penalty (CNN, 25th April 2012)
• Connecticut abolishes the death penalty (BBC, 25th April 2012)
• No More Death Penalty in CT (NBC, 25th April 2012)
• Connecticut schaft de doodstraf af (VRT, in Dutch, 26th April 2012)
• Amnesty International Praises Connecticut Lawmakers on Death Penalty Repeal; Urges Governor to Sign Bill Following House Vote (Amnesty International, 11th April 2012)

More:

• Death penalty taken out of Belgian criminal law on August 1, 1996.
• Amnesty International death penalty report 2011
• Amnesty International death penalty report 2010
• Taboo on homosexuality: death penalty in Uganda