State v. Peeler

Summary

This concurring opinion agrees that the court's prior decision declaring Connecticut's death penalty unconstitutional remains binding and that similarly situated capital defendants must be resentenced. It rejects the state's arguments that the prior decision rested on flawed history, improper consideration of infrequency and delay, racial disparities, execution-error risks, statutory-interpretation principles, retributive concerns, constitutional text, or an inadequate application of stare decisis. The opinion maintains that legislative abolition of the death penalty materially changed the constitutional analysis and that the state offered no sufficient reason to reverse the earlier decision.