Landmark Legislative Histories Online - Law Libraries' NewsLog

11/17/2009

The Connecticut State Library has posted the full-text of legislative histories for selected landmark Connecticut legislation. These legislative histories can be found in the library’s Digital Collections. The links below are direct links to the histories. To download the full-text of each volume in PDF format, choose the “complete print version” from the “view” drop-down menu on the left side of the Digital Collections screen.

An Act Concerning Revision and Codification of the Substantive Criminal Law, 1969 Public Act No. 828 — i.e. The Penal Code
Volume 1 ~ Volume 2 ~ Volume 3 ~ Volume 4
(“This is the act which compiled the criminal law of Connecticut into a Penal Code. The delayed effective date of 1971 permitted the legal community to study the new law. The Commission to Revise the Criminal Statutes revised and codified the substantive criminal law and did not address the problems of criminal procedure. This act codified the common law principles of criminal liability, created the new concept of an affirmative defense, and eliminated the common law right to forcefully resist arrest. The act established a system of five felonies and four misdemeanors with uniform penalties.”)

An Act Concerning the Death Penalty, 1973 Public Act No. 137
(“This is the act which changed and considerably narrowed the circumstances in which the death penalty would be imposed. It created a new offense of capital felony which was limited to six specific homicide convictions.”)

An Act Concerning Product Liability Actions, 1979 Public Act No. 483
("During the 1970's the rising price of product liability insurance was deemed to have created an unfavorable climate for manufacturing and commerce. The General Assembly sought to remedy this situation by codifying various common law approaches to product liability. The act also applied a single statute of limitations for all claims and simplified the types of defenses which would apply. Other changes included: (1) a provision for punitive damages and attorney fees in certain circumstances; (2) an all-encompassing comparative responsibility standard; (3) changes in the rights of plaintiffs and defendants with respect to provision of workers' compensation and compensation payments; (4) change in duty to warn; and (5) change in the law of indemnity and contribution.”)

An Act Concerning Lethal Injection, Proportionality Review of Death Sentences and Murder of a Child, 1995 Public Act No. 16
("This is the legislative history of the act which prescribes lethal injection, rather than electrocution, as the method of inflicting the death penalty. This act also added a new category to the statuory definition of capital felony and narrowed the grounds for vacating the death penalty.")

An Act Concerning the Death Penalty, 1995 Public Act No. 19
Volume 1 ~ Volume 2
(“This is the legislative history of the act which provides that the death sentence shall be imposed on a defendant in a capital felony case if the aggravating factor or factors outweigh the mitigating factor or factors. Previously the death penalty could not be imposed if there were at least one mitigating factor or no aggravating factors. Previously there was also no requirement to weigh the factors against each other. This act also eliminates ‘unusual and substantial duress’ as one of the five automatic bars to the death penalty and instead redefines ‘unusual and substantial duress’ as a mitigating factor.”)

Posted at 11:13 AM by Roy, Christopher | Category: FYI; Legal History; Legal Research | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)