The provision was added following the high-profile trials of Cheshire home invasion killers Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, both of whom are on death row. The same court considering Peeler's appeal is currently considering defense attorneys' challenge of a provision in the 2012 legislation that abolishes the death penalty for future capital crimes committed in Connecticut but allows executions for those who committed capital crimes before the repeal.Ĭonnecticut lawmakers abolished the death penalty in April 2012 but made the law prospective, effectively applying it only to new cases and keeping in place the death sentences already imposed.Īttorneys representing those on death row have fought back, claiming in legal challenges that the new law violated the condemned inmates' constitutional rights.ĭuring the death penalty debate at the Capitol, some legislators questioned whether a prospective repeal would stand up in court. Peeler is one of 11 men still on death row following the state's 2012 repeal of the death penalty.
#RUSSELL PEELER TRIAL#
Though the high court also agreed with a challenge by the defense of the trial court's refusal to permit disclosure of Lee's psychiatric records to the jury, the justices said the mistake was harmless and ordered a new sentencing hearing for Peeler in which jurors voted for death. "The idea that all murders in a multiple homicide must be proven cruel to impose the death sentence would be bizarre and absurd.Prosecutors successfully appealed the judge's decision, arguing that the judge should have declared a mistrial instead. Brown in Bridgeport, was resentenced Friday in Superior Court.
#RUSSELL PEELER FREE#
While free on bond, according to court papers, Mr. BRIDGEPORT Russell Peeler Jr., sent to death row for ordering the 1999 killings of Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son Leroy B.J. “There has to be cruelty in one of the murders, not all of the murders in a multiple homicide,” Dauster told the justices. J.s help, the police charged Russell Peeler, 27, of Bridgeport, with attempted murder. Prosecutor Marjorie Dauster denied that any of the defense arguments were valid, and took issue with Rademacher's assertion that both of Peeler’s victims had to be killed with cruel intent to warrant a death sentence. "Russell Peeler is a good father and his children need him, even if he is spending the rest of his life in prison," Rademacher said. He also argued jurors had received "improper and vague" instructions when deciding Peeler's sentence.
that the death is the only meaningful sentence," Rademacher said. "I can't imagine anything worse he could say. According to Rademacher, Benedict argued it would be an insult to the victims to give Peeler a life sentence, rather than the death penalty. Arguments presented by Peeler’s attorney, Mark Rademacher, both in court on Thursday and in legal briefs, were based on the death penalty repeal and claims of misconduct during closing arguments by now-retired prosecutor Jonathan Benedict. Russell Peeler was sentenced earlier this year to 105 years in prison for the boyfriend's murder. Before the killings, prosecutors were planning to have the boy testify against Russell Peeler for the 1998 murder of Clarke’s boyfriend, whom they alleged was also Peeler’s drug rival for the prosperous Bridgeport drug trade. Although prosecutors had an eyewitness to the crime, Adrian was only. The man who was the subject of Thursday's arguments, Russell Peeler Jr., was sentenced to death in 2007 for ordering his brother Adrian to kill Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son, Leroy "B.J." Brown. Based mainly on the testimony of associates, Russell Peeler was convicted of ordering the executions and sentenced to death. mirror driven by Russell Peeler, whom hed known since high school. whatever, while addressing Superior Court Judge. Peeler A peeler is a kitchen tool consisting of a slotted metal blade attached to. The court may consider whether the constitutional rights of people previously sentenced to death are being violated now that the state has stopped imposing capital punishment. The state Supreme Court will hear arguments Thursday on whether Russell Peeler Jr., convicted of ordering the 1999 killings of Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son Leroy 'B.J.' Brown in Bridgeport. demonstrated this notion when he callously referred to the boy he’d ordered killed in 1999 as, B.J. He ordered the 1999 killings of a woman and her 8-year-old son in Bridgeport. The outcome of the case could influence the future of 10 other men sentenced to die in Connecticut before the repeal became law in 2012. (Reuters) - Attorneys for a Connecticut drug lord sentenced to die for ordering the 1999 murders of a mother and her 8-year-old appealed to the state Supreme Court on Thursday to sentence him instead to life in prison in light of the state's death penalty repeal.
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