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Superior Court judge has ruled that seven death row inmates can pursue their claim that Connecticut's death penalty is racially and geographically biased. Judge Stanley T. Fuger Jr. said Connecticut's constitution affords defendants greater legal rights than the U.S. Constitution, so they have the right to present the kind of systemwide bias evidence that the 1987 ruling barred. In his decision, the judge rejected the state’s assertion that the inmates were abusing the writ of habeas corpus — an inmate's right to challenge his incarceration — by using it as a stall tactic to delay execution. Read a news account: http://courant.com/news/local/hc-cthabeas0228.artfeb28,0,7990906.story Read the judge’s opinion: Death row challenge allowed
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