All Prosecution Is Local Op-Ed

• Published in: The New York times
• Main Author: Jeffrey A. Meyer and Linda Ross Meyer
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, N.Y New York Times Company 04.03.2007
• Edition: Late Edition (East Coast)
• Subjects: Capital punishment; Criminal sentences; Murders & murder attempts; Public prosecutors; Connecticut; Hamden
• ISSN: 0362-4331

The case involves Jessie Campbell III, the newest member of Connecticut's death row. More than six years ago, Mr. Campbell went on a shooting spree in Hartford, killing two women and seriously injuring a third. A jury convicted him in 2004 on charges including capital murder, but in view of mitigating evidence about Mr. Campbell's background and remorse, the jury was deadlocked on sentencing. A death sentence followed only after a second jury was impaneled last fall. Eight men now live on Connecticut's death row. Five of the eight were sentenced to death for cases from Waterbury and the remaining three, including Mr. Campbell, from Hartford. That leaves the rest of the state -- including Bridgeport and New Haven, which have comparable populations and similarly high murder rates -- with no defendants on death row. Why? Because Waterbury and Hartford prosecutors far more often insist on death penalty hearings rather than accept guilty pleas in return for life imprisonment. Had Mr. Campbell killed outside Hartford or Waterbury, he probably wouldn't have faced a death penalty trial at all. Of more than 30 multiple-murder defendants convicted for a capital felony since 1973, only a few have landed on death row. With the exception of Michael Ross, executed in 2005 for murders committed in New London County, the remaining death row defendants were prosecuted by state's attorneys from Hartford or Waterbury.