In 1997, Todd Rizzo used a sledgehammer to kill a 13-year-old boy just to see what it was like to kill someone. Now his attorneys are trying to get Rizzo, 32, off death row by arguing his death sentence is cruel and unusual punishment.
The Connecticut Supreme Court heard Rizzo's death penalty appeal on Friday.
Rizzo pleaded guilty in 1999 to luring Stanley Edwards IV into his back yard and bludgeoning him with a sledgehammer. Rizzo was 18 at the time of the attack.
During the hearing, his attorneys urged the Justices to declare the death penalty unconstitutional, based in part on the state legislature's vote to ban the punishment last session. The governor vetoed the bill.
"They decided even for the worst crimes, imprisoning the perpetrators for the rest of their lives with no possibility of parole is serious enough penalty to achieve retribution," said Ann Parrent, an assistant public defender.
"You're being asked to make a legislative decision here which you don't have the authority to do based on a law that even the legislature couldn't complete through the legislative process," said Harry Weller, a senior assistant state's attorney.
Rizzo's attorneys also used other arguments to try persuading the Justices, including arguing that mitigating factors like his troubled childhood and his age were not properly considered in the case.
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"I submit that the proof of the myriad of mitigating factors was so clear and so compelling that the exercise of reasoned judgment could not have rejected them," said Judith Borman, an assistant public defender.
"The record does show that there was consideration of all the evidence as required by law," said Weller.
The Justices did not specify when a ruling on the appeal will come, but it is expected to take months.
The appeal comes at a time when another jury is deciding whether Steven Hayes will be sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty for killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11.
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