30/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - Abolition of death penalty in US state of Connecticut. The EU high representative “warmly welcomes” the signing by Governor Dannel P. Malloy on 25 April of legislation abolishing the death penalty in the State of Connecticut, in the USA. Catherine Ashton congratulated the Governor, the Senate and the House of Representatives “on this historic decision”. She hopes that this decision will encourage other US states to do likewise. Connecticut is the 17th state in the USA to abandon capital punishment. The death penalty has hardly been used in this state, where only one person has been executed in the last 52 years. (CG/transl.fl)