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Thread: Steven Hayes - Connecticut

  1. #81
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    "“I don't deserve to live," he added. "I don't want to live."" , then why not volunteer for execution??? Get it over with you piece of trash!

  2. #82
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    Convicted Killer Steven Hayes Sent Suicide Note To Courant

    Days before correction officers found him unresponsive in his prison cell on Connecticut's death row, condemned killer Steven Hayes sent a suicide note to The Courant.

    Hayes, sentenced to death in December 2010 for the home-invasion killings of a Cheshire mother and her two daughters, cited his inability to deal with what he described as intolerable conditions at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers as his reason to end his life.

    Like his previous suicide attempts, Hayes' latest bid to kill himself by overdosing on medication was unsuccessful. Officials said that he was recovering Wednesday at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington.

    "Northern is a psychological torture chamber," Hayes, 50, wrote in the letter, dated March 6. The Courant received it Wednesday. "Not all but many staff enjoy the infliction of torment both physical and mental."

    In the letter, Hayes wrote as if he were already dead — "as you know I am dead by suicide" — and said that prison officials would blame "unresolved issues and anger due to my crime and past actions" for his suicide.

    "I feel genuine guilt and remorse for my crime and past behavior," Hayes wrote. "Not a day goes by where I do not get emotional and cry when I reflect on what I did. However I am okay with this because I am suppose to feel this pain. It proves I am human and not a monster. I used to believe I was a monster but a true monster would not feel bad @causing pain and suffering. I feel bad. I can thank DOC staff for showing me the difference."

    In November 2012, Hayes filed a federal civil rights complaint charging — in a handwritten document — harassment, cruelty, unfair punishment and mail tampering by state prison officials, as well as complaints that his medical problems were being ignored.

    "It is these conditions that caused me to take my life," Hayes wrote in his letter to The Courant.

    In response to the federal complaint — which names close to 30 defendants — correction officials have denied Hayes' allegations. They said in a June 20, 2013, court filing that no prison officers "knowingly violated any of the plaintiff's clearly established constitutional or statutory rights."

    Hayes and his accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevsky, await execution for killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, during a July 2007 home invasion.

    The men tied up and tortured the family as they ransacked the home for cash and valuables. Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted Michaela, and Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit. The house was doused with gasoline and set on fire. Hayley and Michaela died of smoke inhalation. The daughters' father and Hawke-Petit's husband, Dr. William Petit Jr., survived but was severely injured.

    Komisarjevsky, 33, was sentenced to death in January 2012. Both men are appealing their death sentences.

    Connecticut lawmakers abolished the death penalty in 2012 but left in place the death sentences imposed on Hayes and Komisarjevsky and the other men currently on death row. A challenge based on that action is pending before the state Supreme Court.

    Hayes was found unresponsive in his death row cell Monday about 9:30 a.m. He apparently saved up medication that he is prescribed, including antidepressants, and took it all at once in an attempt to overdose, said a state official familiar with the incident.

    Testimony at his trial showed that Hayes attempted suicide before and after the Cheshire killings.

    To end his life, Hayes said he slashed his wrists, slammed his mother's car into a rock and tied a sock around his neck, according to trial testimony. He even fantasized about putting his head in a prison cell toilet and doing a back flip, but did not do so for fear he would survive but be paralyzed.

    In a 2012 interview from death row, Hayes told The Courant that he still thinks of ways to die. At one point, he hatched an elaborate plan to be served oysters in prison in exchange for information about unsolved killings he lied about committing. Hayes is deathly allergic to oysters and he hoped, he said in the interview, to die from an allergic reaction.

    Defense attorneys during his trial said that Hayes was consumed with thoughts of suicide and wanted jurors at his trial to recommend death. But prosecutors fought against that notion, painting a much different portrait of Hayes as a manipulative inmate shrewdly aware of how his self-professed suicide attempts —- and the prison system's reporting of them — could affect whether he would be sentenced to death or to life in prison without the possibility of release.

    In a previous letter sent to The Courant in October 2102, Hayes said he wanted to waive his appeals and proceed to his execution because of "cruel and unusual punishment" by prison staff at Northern. The issue is expected to resurface when his appeal is taken up by the higher court.

    Authorities said they were continuing to investigate Monday's event.

    Hayes has run up a nine-page disciplinary record during his various stints in state prisons since 1989.

    The offenses include fighting, assault, possession of contraband, theft, disobeying orders, being intoxicated, bartering and public indecency.

    His most recent disciplinary ticket was for interfering with the safety and security of the prison. As punishment, he was placed for 15 days in what the Department of Correction calls "punitive segregation" from Jan. 6 to Jan. 20. He also lost telephone privileges for 45 days and visitation privileges for 30 days.

    New Haven Public Defender Thomas J. Ullmann, Hayes' trial attorney, said that prison officials went too far with the most recent discipline, saying that the incident occurred when Hayes' cell was cleared out and all of his possessions were put on a table while he was in the shower.

    A correctional officer noticed that he had an extra blanket. When Hayes returned from the shower, Ullmann said he refused to go back in the cell without the blanket, prompting the punishment. Ullmann said that a supervisor had given Hayes permission to have the extra blanket.

    Ullmann said that certain — not all — correction officers were targeting Hayes.

    "They're pushing him into madness," Ullmann said.

    Ullmann said that Hayes has sounded depressed and desperate in recent conversations, and a visitor to death row last week reported to Ullmann that he looked ill and distraught.

    "We care about Steven," Ullmann said. "We are here to protect his rights. And we intend to do that no matter what it takes."

    http://www.courant.com/news/connecti...,4310544.story
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  3. #83
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Hayes Back In Prison After Suicide Attempt

    Cheshire home invasion killer Steven Hayes was released Friday from the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington where he went after an attempted suicide earlier in the week.

    A Department of Correction spokeswoman said Monday that Hayes, 50, was back at Northern Correctional Institution, where Connecticut's death row is housed. She declined to elaborate on the conditions of Hayes' confinement.

    Hayes and his accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevsky, await execution for the torture and slayings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, Hayley and Michaela, during a home invasion at their Cheshire home in July 2007.

    Hayes was found unresponsive in his death row cell March 10. He had saved up medication that he is prescribed, including antidepressants, and took it all at once in an attempt to overdose. In suicide notes, he said intolerable conditions at Northern drove him to end his life. He has a pending federal civil rights complaint charging harassment, cruelty, unfair punishment and mail tampering by state prison officials, as well as complaints that his medical problems are being ignored.

    Testimony at his trial showed that Hayes attempted suicide before and after the Cheshire killings.

    Hayes' trial lawyer, New Haven Public Defender Thomas J. Ullmann, said Monday that Hayes is in the prison's "mental-health unit" and is wearing a Ferguson smock, a safety item designed so that prisoners on suicide watch cannot, among other things, tear them into strips with which to harm themselves. Ullmann said the smock is like a straitjacket.

    "They're driving him to madness," Ullmann said. "The only silver lining is they're going to drive him to have a total breakdown and if he is incompetent or insane, they can't execute such a person."

    Hayes and Komisarjevksy are appealing their death sentences. Connecticut lawmakers abolished the death penalty in 2012 but left in place the death sentences imposed on Hayes and Komisarjevsky and the other men currently on death row. A challenge based on that action is pending before the state Supreme Court.

    http://www.courant.com/news/connecti...0,492092.story
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  4. #84
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    Cheshire home invasion killer Steven Hayes seeks kosher prison diet, sues Connecticut DOC officials

    One of the men convicted in the 2007 Cheshire home invasion and triple homicide is suing state Department of Correction officials, claiming his rights are being violated because he isn’t being given a kosher diet in prison.

    Steven Hayes, 51, who is on death row at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, filed the hand-written civil rights complaint in U.S. District Court against the Rev. Anthony Bruno, director of religious services; wardens Edward Maldonado and Angel Quiros, and members of the Religious Review Committee.

    In his complaint, Hayes describes himself as an orthodox practicing Jew, and claims he has been denied a kosher diet, which he has been requesting since May 2013. The complaint seeks to ensure that all Jewish prisoners have access to kosher food.

    “This continuous denial of a kosher diet is a clear violation of my First Amendment right to freely practice my religion of choice, Judaism,” Hayes wrote.

    Hayes further alleges that denying him access to a kosher diet is a violation of his Eighth Amendment right, as it represents cruel and unusual punishment because he is forced to eat non-kosher food in order to survive.

    Karen Martucci, acting director of external affairs with the state Department of Correction, said the lawsuit has been referred to the Attorney General’s office to handle, and she declined to comment further.

    Jaclyn Falkowski, director of communications with the Office of the Attorney General, said Thursday, “We are reviewing the complaint and will respond at the appropriate time in court.”

    Public Defender Thomas Ullmann, who represented Hayes at trial, said he is pleased Hayes “has some spiritual interest and is occupying his mind.”

    “He has been consulting and speaking with a rabbi, and has been asking for more time with the rabbi,” Ullmann said.

    Ullmann called Hayes’ desire for kosher food outlined in the lawsuit a “legitimate request.”

    “I am happy he is finding some spiritual solace,” Ullmann said.

    According to Ullmann, death row inmates have very little to occupy their time.

    “This is what being on death row does — people are sitting in their cells, not doing anything, so filing federal lawsuits is the kind of thing that happens,” Ullmann said.

    Hayes was convicted of felony murder and other counts for the July 23, 2007, home invasion, which resulted in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her children, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17. The lone survivor of the attack, Dr. William Petit Jr., was severely beaten, but was able to escape.

    Hayes sexually assaulted and strangled Hawke-Petit. His accomplice, who is also on death row, Joshua Komisarjevsky, sexually assaulted Michaela. The house was set on fire, and the two girls, who were tied to their beds, died of smoke inhalation. The two men were captured as they attempted to flee.

    In his complaint, Hayes alleges he has lost weight because his access to acceptable food is limited. Hayes objects to the same cooking pots and pans being used for non-kosher and kosher meals.

    “I have been suffering almost starvation for the past year,” Hayes wrote.

    Hayes is seeking a trial by judge on the issue, and he asks for an injunction so the Department of Correction will provide pre-packaged kosher meals to all Jewish prisoners in Connecticut’s prisons. Hayes also seeks $15,000 in punitive and compensatory damages for “intentional infliction of pain, suffering and resulting weight loss from the deliberate denial of a kosher diet.”

    State’s Attorney Michael Dearington, who prosecuted the criminal case, declined to comment on Hayes’ litigation.

    “We are not responsible for Department of Correction protocol,” he said.

    Cheshire Police Chief Neil Dryfe also declined to comment.

    http://www.nhregister.com/general-ne...-doc-officials
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  5. #85
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    Convicted Cheshire murderer on food strike

    Connecticut death row inmate Steven Hayes says he is refusing to eat prison food that he believes is not kosher.

    Hayes, one of two men sentenced to die for the July 2007 killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters in Cheshire, sued the Department of Correction in August, alleging it would not serve him a kosher diet. He says the system is forcing him to “starve or go against God.”

    In a hand-written amended complaint made public Wednesday, Hayes says he hasn’t eaten any non-kosher food since Aug. 24, and now weighs less than 120 pounds. State prison documents show the 5-foot-7 Hayes weighed 170 pounds in 2007.

    The department does offer kosher food, but Hayes contends it isn’t kosher because of cross-contamination in the prison’s kitchens.

    http://www.myrecordjournal.com/news/...od-strike.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  6. #86
    Senior Member Member FLMetfan's Avatar
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    He didn't "go Against God" when he committed murder? Really?
    "I am the warden! Get your warden off this gurney and shut up! You are not in America. This is the island of Barbados. People will see you doing this." Monty Delk's last words.

  7. #87
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Richard86's Avatar
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    If he doesn't want to eat non-Kosher food he could just waive his right to appeal and end his life?

    What grounds for appeal does he have anyway? Does he have a colourable claim of innocence? No. Is his sentence grossly disproportionate? No, it is quite possibly the most hideous murder case I have ever read about.

  8. #88
    Moderator mostlyclassics's Avatar
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    A fuller version of the story . . .

    Death row inmate's prison food complaint rejected

    HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – A federal judge in Connecticut has rejected the arguments of a home invasion killer on death row who complained that the food he is being served in prison is not kosher.

    Steven Hayes, convicted of killing a mother and two daughters, sued the Department of Correction in August, alleging the preparation practices for kosher meals in the kitchen at the state's highest-security prison do not conform to Jewish dietary laws.

    Hayes describes himself in the lawsuit as an Orthodox Jew and says he's been requesting a kosher diet since May 2013. He says he has suffered "almost two years of emotional injury from having to choose between following God and starving or choosing sin to survive."

    Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky were sentenced to die for the 2007 murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, at the family's home in Cheshire. The victims were tied up, two of them were sexually assaulted and their bodies were found after the home was set on fire. Hawke-Petit's husband, Dr. William Petit, was severely beaten, but survived.

    U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Thompson, in a ruling dated Tuesday, rejected Hayes' motions for a hearing and a temporary injunction.

    The judge noted that Hayes is offered kosher meals, and the state Department of Correction has two rabbis who periodically monitor the preparation of kosher foods in the prison system. The judge said both rabbis certified that the food and the food preparation process comply with dietary laws.

    "Although (Hayes) raises as an issue the lack of a reliable orthodox certificate or an onsite Jewish overseer, he provides no evidence suggesting that their absence leads to a finding that the meals are not kosher," the judge wrote.

    Thompson did not throw out the lawsuit. But in rejecting the motions, he found there is not a likelihood that it will succeed.

    In a handwritten amended complaint filed this month, Hayes said he hasn't eaten anything he considers to be nonkosher since Aug. 24 and now weighs less than 120 pounds. State prison documents show the 5-foot-7 Hayes weighed 170 pounds in 2007.

    Karen Martucci, a spokeswoman for the Correction Department, said this month that Hayes has denied to prison officials that he is on a hunger strike.

    Hayes also alleges he has been the subject of other religious discrimination in prison and was placed on a suicide watch for observing a fast during the Yom Kippur holiday last year.

    This is not his first lawsuit against the department. In past litigation, none of which have been successful, Hayes has complained about his mental health care, harassment from prison staff and the temperature in his cell.

    Source

  9. #89
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Cheshire Killer's Attempt To Speed Up Execution Denied

    By ALAINE GRIFFIN
    The Hartford Courant

    VERNON — Cheshire home invasion killer Steven Hayes has lost his latest bid to waive his appeals and proceed to execution.

    In a handwritten document titled, "Emergency Habeas," filed June 17 in Superior Court in Rockville, Hayes said his incarceration is illegal because delays with his direct appeal to the Supreme Court — automatic and mandatory for capital cases in the state of Connecticut — will not allow him to be put to death.

    Hayes, 52, said that he filed the petition in an effort to get the habeas court to carry out his death sentence and that he was not challenging the conditions of his confinement at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, where he has been on death row since December 2010. Yet Hayes says in the petition that he is in "hostile living conditions" and "psychologically tormented" by prison staff daily. He also says he is denied proper mental-health and medical treatment and is "forced to go without food, clothing, cosmetics, and cell cleaning supplies."

    "I was sentenced to death, I deserve my sentence, I was not sentenced to years of psychological torment, physical abuse and neglect until my appeal can be heard," Hayes wrote. "If not for the mandatory aspect of this appeal, I could choose to freely have my sentence imposed. The direct appeal takes away my freedom of choice and is now forcing me to live as I am."

    In an order issued Wednesday, Judge William H. Bright Jr. said the court would not issue a writ of habeas corpus "because the relief sought by the petitioner is not available" according to the Connecticut Practice Book. Writs of habeas corpus, also known as final petitions, usually contain claims that a convict is being held unlawfully and are filed after challenges involving evidence and law are resolved.

    Should Hayes "seek to challenge the conditions of his confinement, he may do so by filing a petition of writ of habeas corpus that properly challenges the conditions of his confinement," Bright wrote.

    Karen Martucci, acting director of the external affairs division of the state Department of Correction, declined to comment Friday.

    Jennifer Bourn, assistant public defender in the office of the chief public defender, said that while she is handling Hayes' direct appeal, Hayes represented himself in his filing of the habeas petition. Bourn said Hayes' appeal has been fully briefed and is now awaiting a spot on the Supreme Court's calendar for arguments.

    Hayes and his accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevsky, are on death row for killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, during a July 2007 home invasion.

    The men tied up and tortured the family as they ransacked the home for cash and valuables. Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted Michaela, and Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit. The house was doused with gasoline and set on fire. Hayley and Michaela died of smoke inhalation. The daughters' father and Hawke-Petit's husband, Dr. William Petit Jr., survived but was severely injured.

    Komisarjevsky, 33, was sentenced to death in January 2012. Both men are appealing their death sentences.

    Connecticut abolished the death penalty in 2012 but left in place the death sentences imposed on Hayes and Komisarjevsky and the other men currently on death row. A challenge based on that action is pending before the state Supreme Court.

    For nearly three years, Hayes has been pushing for his execution to be carried out. In a September 2012 letter to The Courant, Hayes wrote that he wanted to waive his appeals and be executed. At the time, he cited "cruel and unusual punishment" by prison staff.

    And days before correction officers found him unresponsive in his prison cell in March 2014, Hayes sent a suicide note to The Courant, calling Northern a "psychological torture chamber."

    In the letter, Hayes wrote as if he were already dead — "as you know I am dead by suicide" — and said that prison officials would blame "unresolved issues and anger due to my crime and past actions" for his suicide. Like his previous suicide attempts, Hayes' attempt to overdose on medication was unsuccessful.

    Hayes has also filed federal civil rights complaints against the prison and its staff, allegations correction officials have denied.

    http://touch.courant.com/#section/-1.../p2p-83877032/

  10. #90
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    Connecticut Supreme Court Rules Death Penalty Unconstitutional, Bars Execution Of Any Inmate

    By EDMUND H. MAHONY
    The Hartford Courant

    The Connecticut Supreme Court Thursday ruled 4-3 that the state's death penalty law, as it now stands, is unconstitutional and it barred the execution of the 11 state prison inmates now on death row.

    The law in question was enacted in 2012. It barred the "prospective" execution of those convicted of capital offenses after the date of enactment, but permitted the execution of those convicted before.

    "Upon careful consideration of the defendant's claims in light of the governing constitutional principles and Connecticut's unique historical and legal landscape, we are persuaded that, following its prospective abolition, this state's death penalty no longer comports with contemporary standards of decency and no longer serves any legitimate penological purpose," Justice Richard Palmer wrote for the majority.

    ""For these reasons, execution of those offenders who committed capital felonies prior to April 25, 2012, would violate the state constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment."

    When state lawmakers abolished the death penalty in 2012 but made the law prospective, it prompted legal challenges by attorneys representing those condemned to die by execution.

    The Supreme Court agreed to take up the law's prospective issue when it granted a request by Eduardo Santiago, whose death sentence was overturned two months after the repeal took effect.

    The justices ordered a new penalty phase for Santiago, saying the trial judge failed to disclose "significant and relevant" mitigating evidence for jury consideration when jurors decided to send Santiago to death row for the December 2000 killing of Joseph Niwinski in West Hartford.

    During the death penalty debate, some legislators questioned whether a prospective repeal would stand up in court. The provision was added following the high-profile trials of Cheshire home invasion killers Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, both of whom are on death row.

    In his 2013 arguments before the Supreme Court, Assistant Public Defender Mark Rademacher told justices that even Connecticut's top prosecutor was skeptical of the prospective repeal.

    "The problems with the prospective repeal were aptly summed up by Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane when he told the legislature that prospective repeal creates two classes of people," Rademacher said at the time.

    "One will be subject to execution and the other will not, not because of the nature of the crime or the existence or absence of any aggravating or mitigating factor but because of the date on which the crime was committed," Rademacher said Kane told legislators in March 2012.

    "That is untenable as a matter of constitutional law or public policy. I just wouldn't plain feel right doing it," Rademacher recalled Kane saying.

    Rademacher said no jurisdiction in the history of the United States has executed an offender after renouncing capital punishment. In Connecticut, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles — not the governor — has the power to commute a death sentence to life in prison.

    Senior Assistant State's Attorney Harry Weller argued in support of the new law, saying that prospective repeal was the legislature's intent. He said it is constitutional and argued against the justices ruling on just part of the law. If the effective date of the law is found unconstitutional, the law must be struck in its entirety, he said.

    Weller said he saw two outcomes, "and neither of them get the defendant what he wants." The first outcome, he said, would be to affirm the constitutionality of the new law. The second outcome would be a ruling that the new law is unconstitutional.

    "But if you do that, the entire act is unconstitutional," Weller said. "This defendant remains subject to the death penalty and the death penalty remains in place."

    Weller said the state's highest court has always deferred to the legislature in regard to decisions about Connecticut's death penalty.

    The last person to be executed in Connecticut was serial killer Michael Ross, and it occurred in 2005 only after Ross waged a legal fight to end his appeals and to have the sentence imposed.

    http://touch.courant.com/#section/-1.../p2p-84199697/

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