Connecticut Supreme Court Upholds Death Penalty Ban: BREAKING

The State Supreme Court held fast and once again ruled that the 11 men on death row won’t be executed.

The court ruled 5-2 and released its decision Thursday in a short legal document. It upheld its previous decision to abolish the death penalty.

State lawmakers got rid of the death penalty in 2012, but made it so that inmates already on death row would be executed. The State Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in August that the death penalty violates the state constitution and that those on death row would instead be given life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane said that the court has spoken and his office will follow its orders.

"We will move forward to re-sentence the individuals currently on death row to a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release," he said. "The Division of Criminal Justice and I extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims of these crimes and to their families."

Gov. Dannel Malloy said that he has been opposed to the death penalty through years as a prosecutor, attorney and public servant.

“Several years ago, Connecticut joined more than a dozen other states and the majority of the industrialized world in replacing capital punishment with the punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole," he said. "Today’s decision reaffirms what the court has already said: those currently serving on death row will serve the rest of their life in prison with no possibility of ever obtaining freedom."

Malloy added that thoughts should be focused on the victims and their surviving families and not on those sitting on death row.

Shortly after state lawmakers adopted the death penalty ban in 2012, convicted killer Eduardo Santiago’s death sentence was overturned and led to the current court proceedings, according to the Hartford Courant. Santiago killed Joseph Niwinski in West Hartford in 2000.

There was some debate whether the law would hold-up in court when it was passed.

Only two Connecticut inmates have been executed in the past 54 years and both volunteered for execution.

The last person executed in Connecticut was serial killer Michael Ross in 2005, and he fought to have the appeal process end so he could die.

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