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Thread: Joshua Komisarjevsky - Connecticut

  1. #91
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    Komisarjevsky requests new trial

    Convicted murderer Joshua Komisarjevsky is seeking a new trial for the home invasion killings of a woman and her two daughters, saying the proceedings should have been moved to another courthouse because of the case's notoriety.

    Komisarjevsky filed a motion for a new trial Wednesday in New Haven Superior Court. He joined co-defendant Steven Hayes on death row last month for the 2007 killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters.

    Komisarjevsky says he was denied his constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury because a judge denied his request for a change of venue. His lawyers say the case should have been moved because of the publicity and what he called the "emotional effect of a clearly visible Petit posse" advocating for the death penalty.

    http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/K...#ixzz1jGAxUNWu

  2. #92
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    Hearing on Komisarjevsky's retrial request will take place Wednesday

    A hearing will be held Wednesday on convicted murderer Joshua Komisarjevsky’s request for a new trial in the home invasion killings of a Connecticut woman and her two daughters.

    Komisarjevsky joined co-defendant Steven Hayes on death row last month for the 2007 killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters in their Cheshire home.

    He’s arguing the proceedings should have been moved to another courthouse because of the case’s notoriety in greater New Haven.

    Komisarjevsky says he was denied his constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury because a judge denied his request for a change of venue. His lawyers cite the publicity and what he called the “emotional effect of a clearly visible Petit posse” at the trial advocating capital punishment.

    A prosecutor declined comment.

    http://middletownpress.com/articles/...6155345199.txt

  3. #93
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    Judge denies Komisarjevsky retrial request

    A judge has denied a request by convicted murderer Joshua Komisarjevsky for a new trial in the home invasion killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, Michaela and Hayley, saying he received a fair trial.

    New Haven Superior Court Judge Jon Blue on Wednesday denied motions for a new trial and that the conviction be overturned.

    Komisarjevsky joined co-defendant Steven Hayes on death row last month for the 2007 killings in Cheshire.

    He argued the proceedings should have been moved because of the case's notoriety in New Haven and the "emotional effect of a clearly visible Petit posse" at the trial advocating capital punishment.

    Blue said the victims' family behaved in a dignified manner and the jury was attentive and fair.

    http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/J...#ixzz1jpV8CYui

  4. #94
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    Komisarjevsky to speak at death penalty sentencing

    Connecticut triple murderer Joshua Komisarjevsky is telling a pen pal that he plans to speak at his sentencing this week, saying he has "something I need to say."

    Komisarjevsky is scheduled to be formally given the death penalty Friday in New Haven Superior Court, where he was convicted in the home invasion killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters in their Cheshire home.

    He did not testify at trial, but the New Haven Register reports he told a pen pal he will speak at his sentencing, and expressed bitterness at being "excommunicated" by the world.

    Komisarjevsky and his co-defendant, Steven Hayes, have tried to blame each other for escalating the violence at the 2007 home invasion.

    The sole survivor, Dr. William Petit, also plans to address the court Friday.

    http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/new_hav...lty-sentencing

  5. #95
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    Connecticut home invasion killer sentenced to death

    A U.S. man was sentenced Friday to die for killing a woman and her two daughters during a night of terror in their suburban home, a crime that halted momentum to abolish the death penalty in the state of Connecticut.

    Joshua Komisarjevsky, 31, blamed his accomplice for much of the crime but spoke of the devastating consequences of his decisions. He said he has family and supporters who don't want him to die and said being sentenced to death was a "surreal experience."

    "I know my responsibilities, but what I cannot do is carry the responsibilities of the actions of another," Komisarjevsky said. "I did not want those innocent women to die."

    Komisarjevsky joins accomplice Steven Hayes and nine other men on Connecticut's death row. The state's last execution in 2005 was the first since 1960, and Komisarjevsky will likely spend years, if not decades, in prison.

    The two paroled burglars tormented a family of four in an affluent suburb before killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and leaving her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, to die in a fire.

    he only survivor, Dr. William Petit, was beaten with a baseball bat and tied up but escaped.

    Hayes was convicted in 2010 of raping and strangling Hawke-Petit and killing the girls. The girls were tied to their beds and doused in gasoline before the house was set ablaze; they died of smoke inhalation. Komisarjevsky was convicted of the killings and of sexually assaulting Michaela.

    Petit called the crime a "personal holocaust" as he testified during the sentencing hearing.

    "I lost my family and my home," he said. "They were three special people. Your children are your jewels."

    The 2007 attack led to the defeat of a bill to outlaw the death penalty in Connecticut and sparked tougher state laws for repeat offenders and home invasions.

    In arguing for a life sentence, his lawyers said he was repeatedly sexually abused as a child by his foster brother and he never got proper psychological help as his problems worsened.

    Prosecutors said the rape claims emerged years later when Komisarjevsky faced prison time for 19 nighttime residential burglaries committed a decade ago.

    Komisarjevsky admitted in an audiotaped confession played for the jury that he spotted Hawke-Petit and Michaela at a supermarket and followed them to their house. After going home and putting his own daughter to bed, he and Hayes returned to the Petit house in the middle of the night to rob it.

    The men, who blamed each other for escalating the crime, were caught fleeing in the family's car.

    Komisarjevsky did not testify during his trial but objected unsuccessfully to an effort by his attorneys to play a videotaped interview of his 9-year-old daughter. Speaking outside the presence of the jury, he said he didn't want his daughter to feel compelled to help "one of the most hated people in America."

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...nce/52818952/1

  6. #96
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    State's Attorney Michael Dearington said that Joshua Komisarjevsky, 31, was set a theoretical execution date of July 20, although appeals will likely keep him alive for many years

    http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...b343f5afe3.271

  7. #97
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    Cheshire Killer on Family Slay: I Try Not to Think About It

    Joshua Komisarjevsky told The Associated Press in his first interview since he was convicted that there isn't anything he could say to Dr. William Petit "that will restore the lives lost"

    The Connecticut killer who once called himself one of the most hated men in America said in a death row interview that he tries not to think about the murder of a suburban mother and her two daughters, suffers no nightmares and has nothing to say to the only survivor of the brutal 2007 attack.

    Joshua Komisarjevsky told The Associated Press in his first interview since he was convicted that there isn't anything he could say to Dr. William Petit "that will restore the lives lost."

    He also declined an opportunity to express remorse for the killings.

    "I guess my reaction is not the reaction society expected," Komisarjevsky said.

    Wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit, Komisarjevsky kept direct eye contact during the one-hour interview Monday, smiling at times as he spoke by telephone from behind a glass window at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, Conn.

    He had the same short hair and facial stubble that he wore during the trial, but the once-slender inmate has since put on 30 or 40 pounds, which he blamed on depression and lack of movement. He said he agreed to speak to a reporter out of curiosity.

    By turns jovial and introspective, he made references to an afflicted conscience but said he fills his time in solitary confinement by drawing, watching television and reading and responding to hate mail as well as notes from supporters.

    "Some days you're just overwhelmed by the isolation and the difficulties in communicating with loved ones, dealing with your own crisis of conscience," Komisarjevsky said.

    Komisarjevsky, 31, was convicted last year in a crime that unsettled notions of suburban safety and featured prominently in Connecticut's death penalty debate.

    He and a co-defendant, Steven Hayes, were convicted of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters. Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit, while Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted her 11-year-old daughter, Michaela.

    Michaela and her 17-year-old sister, Hayley, were tied to their beds and died of smoke inhalation after the house was doused in gas and set on fire.

    Last month, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a new law that ends the state's death penalty for future crimes, but it does not apply to those already on death row. Many had insisted that the death penalty remain for previous cases so that Komisarjevsky and Hayes would not be spared.

    "In order for some to swallow this bitter pill, it was inevitable that we would be left out," Komisarjevsky said.

    In the last half-century, Connecticut has executed only one inmate -- serial killer Michael Ross, who was put to death in 2005 after voluntarily waiving his appeals.

    "I don't think I'll be executed against my will," Komisarjevsky said. "I think if I volunteer the state will execute me."

    Asked if would consider volunteering, Komisarjevsky said, "I have my days. I think everybody on death row has their days. Some days you'd consider it. Some days you don't."

    Still, he said he feels a responsibility to supporters, saying they would be hurt by his execution. He said his parents and a few friends visit him in prison.

    "The reality of my situation is that I'm going to die in prison," he said. "It's simply a matter of what age. It's a very surreal experience to be judged so worthless that society wants you dead."

    Asked if he is remorseful, he did not offer a direct answer. He said he has trouble expressing emotion.

    "I like everyone else has to get up every day and look in the mirror," Komisarjevsky said.

    Komisarjevksy said he has not spoken to Hayes, but has seen him passing by on death row, where a total of 11 inmates are each held in individual cells. During separate trials, Komisarjevksy and Hayes each blamed the other for escalating the crime.

    "Frankly, we don't have anything to talk about," Komisarjevsky said. "I'm sort of taking the stance let bygones be bygones. I know what I'm culpable for and he knows what he's culpable for."

    For the interview, Komisarjevsky was escorted into a room where his handcuffs were removed through a slot in the door.

    "I try really hard not to think about it," Komisarjevsky said of the crime.

    Among the ways he occupies his time is by drawing. He said one depicts a biblical scene of Daniel in the Lion's Den that he did for a friend.

    Komisarjevsky said he gets two hours per day of recreation time, but he has a television in his cell that gets several channels including the Spanish-language network Telemundo.

    "No hablo espanol, so that doesn't do me much good," Komisarjevsky said with a laugh.

    Komisarjevsky declined to comment directly about the crime, citing the advice of lawyers who are expected to file an appeal.

    In an audiotaped confession played for the jury in his trial last year, Komisarjevsky admitted that he spotted Hawke-Petit and 11-year-old Michaela at a supermarket and followed them to their house in Cheshire, a suburb of New Haven. After going home and putting his own daughter to bed, Komisarjevsky and Hayes returned to the Petit house in the middle of the night, while the family was sleeping, to rob it.

    William Petit was beaten, tied up and taken to the basement. He managed to escape and hop, roll and crawl across a yard to a neighbor's house for help.

    Petit advocated keeping the death penalty in Connecticut and last year successfully lobbied state senators to hold off on repeal legislation while Komisarjevsky was still facing a death penalty trial.

    Petit declined to comment through a spokesman.

    "July 23, 2007, was our personal holocaust," Petit said after Komisarjevsky was sentenced to death. "A holocaust caused by two who are completely evil and actually do not comprehend what they have done."

    http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local...151552945.html
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  8. #98
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    Komisarjevsky Lawyer May Seek New Trial Over Police Tapes

    An attorney for convicted Cheshire home invasion killer Joshua Komisarjevsky said Tuesday he may seek a new trial on grounds that the defense was not provided tapes of calls into the police department on the morning of the triple murder.

    The Courant obtained the 41 taped phone calls that came into the Cheshire Police Department's three private phone lines on the morning of July 23, 2007, and posted some of the calls online Monday.

    Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes were convicted of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, Hayley and Michaela Petit. Dr. William Petit was beaten but survived. Komisarjevsky and Hayes are on death row.

    Some of the calls were from officers, including one from a hostage negotiator who was told not to report to work.

    "We did not get them," said attorney Walter Bansley. "There is no doubt that if we were aware of those calls we would have tried to use them at trial and it would have made for a different defense.''

    Bansley said lawyers had long discussions about whether to make an issue of the police response as part of Komisarjevsky's defense. He said the defense team decided against heavily criticizing the police out of concerns it would backfire with the jury.

    "Failure to disclose evidence is a big legal issue particularly in a death penalty case where judges allow almost everything in as evidence,'' Bansley said. "Is it grounds for a new trial? Or just a possible court sanction for not turning over evidence? That's what we are discussing now."

    Komisarjevsky's death-penalty conviction is already on appeal. His lawyers on the appeal are John Holdridge and Moira Buckley. The lead attorney at his trial was Jeremiah Donovan. Donovan referred comment on the tapes to Bansley because Bansley was the attorney who concentrated on the police response for the defense team. Bansley said he is discussing the legal options with all of the lawyers.

    The Courant obtained the tapes through law enforcement sources. When Cheshire officials were asked about the tapes, they responded that they had been destroyed in a lightning strike in 2010 and were no longer available.

    But town officials were clear that they had turned all evidence over to prosecutors in the weeks following the killings.

    "All recordings that were requested by personnel assigned to the Petit investigation and trial were provided to the appropriate agencies by the Cheshire Police Department during the course of the investigation,'' Town Manager Michael Milone said in an email response.

    New Haven State's Attorney Michael Dearington could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But when The Courant previously asked Dearington about the tapes, he said that evidence logs showed that they had been turned over to defense attorneys for both defendants before the trials.

    "We have identified the CD which you refer to and which you have concluded was not turned over to the defense in the Komisarjevsky case. Please be advised that we have documentation in our file, dated September 13, 2007, that such CD along with 87 documents and materials were turned over to the defense attorneys in both the Hayes and Komisarjevsky cases,'' Dearington wrote in an email to The Courant in response to a question about the calls.

    Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane declined to comment about the tapes.

    Hayes was represented by New Haven public defender Thomas Ullmann, who also said that he did not remember hearing the calls when The Courant played one of the tapes for him. When Dearington provided the specific dates he turned the tapes over, Ullmann said he couldn't find the record but couldn't dispute Dearington.

    Bansley on Tuesday said he checked evidence logs from Komisarjevsky's case and he did not see anything that was turned over on the date specified by Dearington.

    "The first time I ever heard them was listening to them this morning," Bansley said.

    http://www.courant.com/news/connecti...,1155600.story
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  9. #99
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    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #100
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    Komisarjevsky Wants New Trial Over 'Undisclosed' Cheshire Police Tapes

    By DAVE ALTIMARI
    The Hartford Courant

    Attorneys for death row inmate Joshua Komisarjevsky have filed a motion with the state Supreme Court seeking a hearing to determine why more than 40 taped Cheshire police calls were not turned over to the defense before Komisarjevky's conviction in the 2007 slaying of three members of the Petit family.

    Komisarjevksy's attorneys want an evidentiary hearing to not only rectify the original court record but also to argue that his conviction should be overturned and he be granted a new trial on the grounds his rights were violated because evidence was withheld.

    The existence of 41 taped calls from three internal Cheshire police lines was first revealed by The Courant in July of 2013. Some of the calls showed that police told SWAT team members not to report, informed one of the department's hostage negotiators not to go to the scene and initially may have doubted the veracity of Jennifer Petit's story.

    Petit and daughters Hayley and Michaela were slain on July 23, 2007 during a home invasion. Dr. William Petit survived being beaten before his wife and daughters were killed.

    Komisarjevsky and Stephen Hayes were convicted of felony murder and sentenced to death. Both are appealing their convictions to the state Supreme Court.

    Georgia attorney John Holdridge and Hartford attorney Moira Buckley, who are handling Komisarjevsky's appeal, filed the 17-page motion late Friday seeking a new trial, arguing calls that could have impugned the credibility of Cheshire police officers were never turned over to Komisarjevsky's trial attorneys.

    "The appellant respectfully requests an evidentiary hearing in the trial court to establish that the state failed to disclose to the defense at trial certain telephone calls to and from the Cheshire Police Department that would have supported a defense theory at the guilt-innocence phase that the police response in this case was inadequate," the motion reads.

    "The appellant sought to establish the inadequate police response, not to blame the police, but to challenge the credibility of various Cheshire police witnesses who testified against him by demonstrating their motive, self-interest, bias and prejudice against him," the motion states.

    The attorneys are asking the Supreme Court to send the evidence issue back to New Haven Superior Court Judge Jon Blue for a possible hearing in which defense attorneys could call Cheshire police officials as witnesses.

    The Chief State's Attorney's office has 10 days to submit a rebuttal. The Supreme Court then would decide whether to send the appeal back to Blue for an evidentiary hearing.

    The state will likely argue that the tapes were turned over. New Haven State's Attorney Michael Dearington, who prosecuted both men, has previously told The Courant that evidence logs showed that the calls had been turned over to defense attorneys for both defendants before the trials.

    "We have identified the CD which you refer to and which you have concluded was not turned over to the defense in the Komisarjevsky case. Please be advised that we have documentation in our file, dated September 13, 2007, that such CD along with 87 documents and materials were turned over to the defense attorneys in both the Hayes and Komisarjevsky cases,'' Dearington said in July 2013.

    In the latest motion Komisarjevsky's attorneys acknowledge that it appears Hayes' counsel did get all of the calls, but that Komisarjevsky's trial attorney's did not.

    When Cheshire officials were asked about the tapes in 2013, they responded that they had been destroyed in a lightning strike in 2010 and were no longer available.

    The latest court document indicates that Cheshire police, once the Courant's story ran and the calls were made public, did turn over some of the calls to Holdridge and Buckley.

    But the motion also makes it clear that attorneys believe some calls are still missing and that Komisarjevsky's rights have been violated because of it.

    "It is difficult to imagine that the state's failure to preserve this evidence was not in bad faith and, therefore, that failure violated the appellant's federal due process rights," the motion said.

    http://www.courant.com/news/connecti...,1808747.story

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