Case Study

Repealing the Death Penalty

 “Winning Connections played a vital role in our campaign to repeal the death penalty. Their flexibility, responsiveness, and messaging were major factors in this historic effort.”

– Ben Jones, Executive Director, The Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty

Challenge

Each legislative session, Connecticut lawmakers would introduce legislation to repeal the death penalty, only for the bills to die in committee. In 2012, long-time advocates finally got the bill out of committee, setting the stage for an uphill battle for civil rights groups across the state.

Our Role

The Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Connecticut ACLU partnered with Winning Connections to spread awareness of this momentous legislation. We put grassroots pressure on key state senators and representatives who had not yet taken a stance on repeal. In conversations with voters, our callers explained that the death penalty was bad policy that sucked up taxpayer money and harmed society.

Outcome

Both the Connecticut State Senate and House of Representatives voted for the repeal bill. Governor Dan Malloy signed the bill into law on April 25, 2012, making Connecticut the 17th state in the nation to ban the death penalty.

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