WASHINGTON - US state Connecticut's Governor Dannel Malloy on Wednesday signed the state's death penalty repeal bill into law, making the state the 17th state in the country to abolish capital punishment.
"This afternoon I signed legislation that will, effective today, replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of release as the highest form of legal punishment in Connecticut," Malloy said in a statement released after he signed the bill behind closed doors.
The new law replaces the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole. It abolished the death penalty for future cases, but it does not affect sentences for the 11 inmate's currently on death row in the state.
Malloy said he signed the bill because working as a prosecutor, he "learned firsthand that our system of justice is very imperfect" and that it was "subject to the fallibility of those who participate in it."
The second factor that led to his decision was the "unworkability" of Connecticut's death penalty law.