(CNN) -- The Connecticut Senate on Thursday voted to repeal the death penalty, setting the stage for Connecticut to join several states that have recently abolished capital punishment.

In the last five years, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Illinois have repealed the death penalty. California voters will decide the issue in November.

The bill now goes to the House of Representatives, where it is also expected to pass. Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, has vowed to sign the measure into law should it reach his desk, his office said.

"For everyone, it's a vote of conscience," said Senate President Donald Williams Jr., a Democrat who says he's long supported a repeal. "We have a majority of legislators in Connecticut in favor of this so that the energies of our criminal justice system can be focused in a more appropriate manner."

In 2009, state lawmakers in both houses tried to pass a similar bill, but were ultimately blocked by then-Gov. Jodi Rell, a Republican.

Capital punishment has existed in Connecticut since its colonial days. But the state was forced to review its death penalty laws beginning in 1972 when a Supreme Court decision required greater consistency in its application. A moratorium was then imposed until a 1976 court decision upheld the constitutionality of capital punishment.

Since then, Connecticut juries have handed down 15 death sentences. Of those, only one person has actually been executed, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonpartisan group that studies death penalty laws.

Michael Ross, a convicted serial killer, was put to death by lethal injection in 2005 after giving up his appeals.

What are the answers to this following set of questions:

1. Who was executed in Connecticut after 1976?
2. How?
3. When?
4. Who voted on Thursday?
5. To do what?
6. Who will vote next?
7. What states already have?
8. When will the next state choose?
9. Who will vote in Connecticut next?
10. Is it going to be successful?
11. Where will it go next?
12. What will he do?
13. What party is he?
14. Who stopped the previous bill?
15. What party?
16. How many sentences have been given since 1976?

Numbered answers:
1. Michael Ross,
2. by lethal injection
3. in 2005
4. The Connecticut Senate
5. to repeal the death penalty
6. California
7. New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Illinois
8. in November.
9. the House of Representatives,
10. it is expected to
11. Gov. Dannel Malloy
12. sign the bill
13. a Democrat
14. Jodi Rell
15. Republican.
16. 15