Connecticut Supreme Court Associate Justice Richard Palmer, often the deciding vote on the most controversial and consequential cases in the past 27 years, retired from the bench Wednesday on his 70th birthday.

Palmer, who is required under state law to step down once he turned 70, said Thursday he plans on being a judge trial referee on the Connecticut Superior Court and the Connecticut Appellate Court. There are no age limits for judge trial referees.

A Wethersfield native and West Hartford resident, Palmer was the third-longest-serving justice on the state's high court. He leaves the court having authored pivotal and well-publicized decisions, including the case law that made same-sex marriage legal under the state constitution, the decision that essentially ended the death penalty in Connecticut, and the ruling granting Michael Skakel, the nephew of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's widow Ethel Kennedy, a new trial based on ineffective legal assistance. Skakel was accused of killing a neighbor when both were 15 years old.

All three cases have something in common: All were decided 4-3. And Palmer not only cast the deciding vote in all three cases, he also wrote the opinions.

The case law making same-sex marriage constitutional in the state in 2008 "was an emotionally charged issue," the justice said.

"As all judges do, I tried to keep my personal feelings and emotions out of the case," Palmer said. "We decided it on equal-protection grounds. The opinion speaks for itself. I'm confident we got it right, as later the U.S. Supreme Court came to the same conclusion, albeit with different reasons."

Palmer called the death penalty ruling in State v. Santiago in 2015 "certainly one of the two or three most challenging decisions, both intellectually and emotionally."

With all high-publicized cases, Palmer said Thursday, "We strictly focus on the legal issues and not whatever public interest might be swirling around the case."

Palmer, who estimates he gave about 600 opinions in his nearly three decades on the Connecticut Supreme Court, said he decided to become a lawyer in college because of an interest in government and public policy.

Palmer was in private practice and also served as U.S. attorney for Connecticut and chief state's attorney for Connecticut before being elevated to the state's high court in 1993. He called the current court "the most collegial."

"We don't always agree, and sometimes we disagree strongly, passionately," he said. "Our disagreements, though, are expressed with respect and a real commitment to collegiality."

Richard Robinson, chief justice for the Connecticut Supreme Court, said Thursday that, while some might view Palmer's rulings in the state's same-sex marriage and death penalty cases as leaning left, Palmer was "by the books."

"His legacy will be that he was a remarkable jurist who didn't let his personal feelings interfere with the law," Robinson said. "He honestly went where he thought the law was and, if events occurred that would make him change his mind, he wasn't afraid to change his mind. Richard Palmer as the judge might have different ideas than Richard Palmer the individual."

Gov. Ned Lamont will recommend a replacement for Palmer that the state legislature must then approve. There is no time frame for when that recommendation might come.

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