The Connecticut death penalty's days may be numbered as the Connecticut state Senate voted to repeal capital punishment Thursday.

The Constitution State has only executed on prisoner on death row in the 50 years that it has had the death penalty.

Momentum against the death penalty grew out of publicity of death row inmates who have been executed despite evidence that they were not guilty of the crimes they were convicted for.

I think with the revelations of so many mistakes, aided by DNA testing, it's been made clear that the death penalty risks (innocent) lives, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks capital punishment cases, reported USA Today.

The bill to abolish the death penalty passed the Connecticut state Senate by a vote of 20-16, according to the Connecticut Post, which first reported on the move.

Donald E. Williams, Jr., senate president pro tempore, said a 2007 study showed very few killers even received a death sentence -- nine killers in 34 years were sentenced to death, the Connecticut Post reported.

The study, from 2007, looked at 4,600 murders in Connecticut during that span.

Every single one of those 4,600 murders was a tragedy that terribly hurt the families and friends of the person whose life was taken, Williams told the paper. The death penalty is a distraction. It is discriminatory.

The vote was taken early Thursday morning after 10 hours of debate on the controversial subject.

Connecticut's governor, Dannel Malloy, indicated he would sign a bill repealing the death penalty if it comes across his desk. The bill still has to be voted on in the state's House of Representatives.

House of Representatives