Fasano: Governor should make public death-penalty advice [Rep-Am]

Waterbury Republican American Letter

In 2012, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy guaranteed that legislation banning future capital-punishment prosecutions would not spare the 11 murderers then on death row.

Gov. Malloy made these guarantees to legislators, crime victims’ families and Connecticut residents based upon legal advice.

That advice proved to be wrong.

I asked the governor to share the advice he used to back up his guarantees.

Like the Republican-American (Aug. 22 editorial), I feel the public deserves an explanation.

The governor has avoided responding. Instead, his spokesman, Devon Puglia, has said such information is confidential and exempt from Connecticut’s Freedom of Information laws, calling my formal FOI request a “partisan political stunt” (Aug. 27 article, “Fasano seeks to see advice given Malloy”).

Mr. Puglia is incorrect. Everything in the governor’s office is subject to FOI unless the governor chooses to invoke a privilege.

Mr. Puglia’s statements beg the question: Why choose to prevent the disclosure of records of legitimate public concern?

One must question whether the advice Gov. Malloy received matched his guarantees.

-Len Fasano/North Haven – Sen. Fasano, a Republican, represents the 34th Senate District. He is state Senate minority leader