...Among lower Fairfield County lawmakers on the committee, [Andrew McDonald] and state Rep. Gerald Fox III, D-Stamford, voted in favor of abolishing the death penalty. State Reps. Lawrence Cafero Jr., R- Norwalk and Claudia "Dolly" Powers, R-Greenwich, both voted to keep current law and retain the death penalty....
..."It is in fact, in my estimation, a harsher penalty for him to sit in prison, or rot in prison, for the rest of his natural life," McDonald said during debate. "He is choosing death. I don't think he should have that right." McDonald said [Michael Ross] should have to spend the next 30 or 40 years behind bars. "He doesn't want it. I think he should have it," McDonald said....
...Cafero, arguing that the death penalty should remain in place, said state residents have made it clear through polls and through their representatives over the years that they want "a rarely used, incredibly difficult to obtain death penalty, in only the most severe, most serious, heinous cases imaginable. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we have."...