Joshua Komisarjevsky - Connecticut Death Row

[Heidi]

Jury sends first note in Conn. home invasion case

A Connecticut jury deciding whether a man should get the death penalty for killing a woman and her two daughters in a home invasion asked its first questions Wednesday as jurors sough guidance on how to weigh his role against that of his accomplice.

The jury, its third day of deliberations, asked if that argument is satisfied for one of six capital felony counts if Komisarjevsky played a relatively minor role in only one of the three killings. The judge said yes.

Jurors also asked how to determine if Komisarjevsky played a minor role in the mother's death. Hayes was convicted of strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and the jurors asked if they should only take into account the strangulation or actions leading up to her death.

Judge Jon Blue referred jurors back to their guilt finding, in which they determined Komisarjevsky intentionally aided Hayes in causing her death during the kidnapping. He said jurors must determine if Komisarjevsky played a relatively minor role in helping Hayes in causing her death during the kidnapping.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/07/410...e-in-conn.html

[Heidi]

Jury ends day with no sentence in home invasion

A Connecticut jury deciding whether a man should get the death penalty for killing a woman and her two daughters in a home invasion completed a third day of deliberations without reaching a decision.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...270d4de43821b3

[Heidi]

Jurors to start day 5 in Connecticut home invasion

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?se...rbs&id=8460955

[Heidi]

Verdict reached in Conn. home invasion sentence

A jury has reached a verdict in the sentencing of a Connecticut man for a gruesome home invasion in which he and an accomplice killed a woman and her two daughters.

Joshua Komisarjevsky (koh-mih-sar-JEV'-skee) faces life in prison or the death penalty by lethal injection. His accomplice, Steven Hayes, is already on death row.

Hayes was convicted last year of raping and strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit. Her daughters died of smoke inhalation after they were tied to their beds and left to die in a fire. Komisarjevsky was convicted in October of the killings and sexually assaulting Hawke-Petit's 11-year-old daughter.

His defense argued for leniency, saying his foster brother sexually abused him for years when he was a young child and he never received proper psychological treatment.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...f0b1e86afc7bc6

[Heidi]

Nobody from Komisarjevsky's family is in court room so he'll face his fate alone.

[Heidi]

Judge Blue is reviewing the verdict forms in a silent courtroom.

[Heidi]

rises to face jury. Jury forewoman stands as court clerk begins reading.

[Heidi]

Register's Randy Beach confirms that Joshua Komisarjevsky will get death by lethal injection

[Heidi]

Jurors sit stone faced as court clerk continues to read all of the verdicts that will result in Komisarjevsky being put to death.

So far 5 of 6 counts Komisarvevsky to receive death sentence.

Jury gives Joshua Komisarjevsky death on all counts

his hands clasped military style behind his back, lets loose w/ an audible sigh & shrug of his shoulders as clerk continues reading

Defense Attorney Jeremiah Donovan asks for polling of each individual juror

[Heidi]

Gov. Malloy: Today's Not the Day to Discuss the Death Penalty

In the wake of a jury's decision Friday afternoon to hand down a death sentence to convicted home invasion killer Joshua Komisarjevsky, opponents of capital punishment in Connecticut vowed to press on with their cause while death penalty supporters pledged to continue fighting repeal efforts.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has said in the past that he would sign a repeal bill if one got to his desk, said just minutes after the verdict was handed down that now isn't the time to discuss the matter.

"Gov. Malloy doesn’t think today is a day for him to discuss his views on the death penalty,'' top aide Roy Occhiogrosso said via email. "His thoughts and prayers are with the Petit family.”

State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, a New Haven Democrat who serves on the legislature's judiciary committee and is leader of the repeal movement, said he hopes to once again submit a bill banning capital punishment and replacing it with life in prison without the possibility of release.

"If I can run the bill, I will run the bill,'' Holder-Winfield said. "It is my goal, my intention to make the attempt to abolish the death penalty every time I have the opportunity until it's abolished."
That could be challenging. Because 2012 is a short legislative session, only bills submitted by the committee will be considered. "It's my intention to make the attempt to get the judiciary committee to run the bill,'' Holder-Winfield said.
It's also an election year, and getting controversial legislation passed just before lawmakers go to the polls presents an additional challenge. Holder-Winfield said he's undettered--"I think elections play into everything we do if we're being honest."
The murders of the Petit family in 2007 have long cast a giant shadow over legislative discussions on the death penalty. A repeal bill cleared the General Assembly in 2009 only to be vetoed by then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
During the 2011 session, the effort fell apart after two key state senators said they couldn't support a repeal in the wake of the Petit murders.
Dr. William Petit, the lone survivor of the home invasion, was a frequent presence at the Capitol each time the bill came up for a public hearing. "He puts a face...to this case and that really resonates with folks," state Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, the ranking member of the judiciary committee and a longtime opponent of repeal.
In light of the emotional pull that the Cheshire case exerted on the debate, capital punishment opponents tried to broker a compromise that would only have repealed the death penalty prospectively, for crimes that have yet to be committed.
But Kissel and others said such a distinction was unenforceable and would likely mean that no one would ever be executed in Connecticut again.
"To my mind that flies in the face of all the time and effort both the Hayes jury and this jury took in coming to the conclusion that these perpetrators deserve a death sentence because their crimes were so diabolical and horrific,'' Kissel said.

http://www.courant.com/news/politics...,3720679.story