HARTFORD— Connecticut prosecutors are seeking to re-argue the death penalty before the state Supreme Court, which voted last month to strike it down as unconstitutional.
The Hartford Courant reports that the chief state’s attorney’s office filed a motion Friday to again argue the case.
Justices ruled 4-3 that the death penalty “no longer comports with contemporary standards of decency.”
Prosecutors seek to strike from the record an opinion by Justice Andrew J. McDonald and now-retired Justice Flemming Norcott who wrote that evidence suggests racial disparities in capital punishment.
Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane and Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Harry Weller say that statement amounts to an advisory opinion the Supreme Court is barred from issuing.
Prosecutors say the two justices are repeating an unsupported and “pernicious accusation.”
