You asked how many people currently are sentenced to death in Connecticut and how many murders have been committed since Connecticut reinstated the death penalty.

Currently, seven people in Connecticut are sentenced to death:

1. Robert Bretton,

2. Sedrick Cobb,

3. Robert Courchesne,

4. Richard Reynolds,

5. Michael Ross,

6. Eduardo Santiago, and

7. Daniel Webb.

We obtained information on the number of murders in Connecticut from several sources that rely on the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), a federal program that compiles crime information from the states. Crime reporting by Connecticut police departments did not become mandatory until October 1, 1979 (under PA 79-406) and statistics before that date may not be entirely accurate. In addition, UCR combines murders and non-negligent manslaughters in one category that it defines as “willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another. ” The category generally includes “any death caused by injuries received in a fight, argument, quarrel, assault, or commission of a crime. ”

According to the available statistics, there have been 4,330 murders and non-negligent manslaughters in Connecticut between 1973, when Connecticut enacted its current capital felony statute, and 2003.

Table 1: Murders and Non-negligent Manslaughters in Connecticut by Year Since 1973

Source: Uniform Crime Reports 2003; Bureau of Justice Statistics Homicide Trends in the United States (http: //www. ojp. usdoj. gov/bjs/homicide/homtrnd. htm); and Crime in the United States for 1973, 1974, and 1975.

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