State prosecutor Harry Weller stood in a packed state Supreme Court chamber and attacked the court’s August 2015 landmark decision that found the death penalty unconstitutionally cruel and unusual and not in keeping with Connecticut’s evolving standards of decency.
That vote in State v. Santiago had been a close one, 4-3, and prosecutors thought they might be able to overturn it, given that a death penalty opponent on the court had been replaced by a new justice. On Jan. 7, Weller asked the justices to allow convicted killer Russell Peeler to be put to death. He offered eight reasons why, just five months after the Santiago ruling, the justices should look past the doctrine of stare decisis, quickly change positions, and reinstitute the death penalty.
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