Kill me, please

摘要

On january 18th, dozens of activists fanned out through the legislative building in Hartford, Connecticut's capital. Each wore a red sticker pleading "Don't Kill in My Name". The Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty was formed almost 20 years ago, but recently its membership has doubled and its mission has gained fresh purpose. New England's long moratorium on capital punishment is scheduled to end in a matter of days. On January 26th, Michael Ross, a 45-year-old former life-insurance salesman, will be executed in Connecticut. He will be killed in a remote prison in the middle of the night, but his death will nonetheless make waves. Only two north-eastern states, Connecticut and New Hampshire, allow capital punishment, but even in these two the penalty has been largely theoretical. Connecticut's most recent execution took place in 1960, New Hampshire's back in 1939. Although most states have some provision for capital punishment, one-third of all executions since 1976 have taken place in Texas. Elsewhere, it is common for inmates to spend years on death row while their appeals plod through courts that are reluctant to dispatch them.