Death penalty overturned for Petit family killers

[ttt]

And the other most heinous murderers in CT: 

www.middletownpress.com/general-news/20150813/connecticuts-top-court-overturns-death-penalty-unleashes-firestorm-of-reaction


HARTFORD >> Three years after Connecticut abolished the death penalty for any future crimes, the state’s highest court Thursday spared the lives of the state’s 11 remaining death-row inmates, saying it would be unconstitutional to execute them.

Within minutes, a lawyer with the Chief Public Defender’s office said he was getting on the phone with his office’s clients to share the news.

“There will be no more death row,” said Michael Courtney, the leader of the office’s capital defense unit.

The ruling comes in an appeal from a 12th inmate, Eduardo Santiago of Torrington, whose attorneys had argued that any execution carried out after the 2012 repeal would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Santiago, whose first sentence was overturned, faced a second penalty hearing and the possibility of lethal injection for a 2000 murder-for-hire killing in West Hartford.



The Connecticut Supreme Court, in a sharply divided 4-3 ruling, agreed with his position, ruling that the death penalty “no longer comports with contemporary standards of decency and no longer serves any legitimate penological purpose.”

“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,” Justice Richard Palmer wrote for the majority.

Those inmates include Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes, who were sentenced to die for killing a mother and her two daughters in a highly publicized 2007 home invasion in Cheshire.

Related Editorial: Connecticut death penalty ruling ends costly charade

The 2012 repeal, which set life in prison without the possibility of release as the punishment for crimes formerly considered capital offenses, was passed prospectively by lawmakers amid public outrage over the prospect that Komisarjevsky and Hayes might be spared execution.

In his ruling, Palmer wrote that it would not be permissible to execute other convicts “merely to achieve the politically popular end of killing two especially notorious inmates.”

The ruling drew harsh criticism from the three dissenting justices and legislative Republicans, who accused the court of taking on the role of policymakers.

“In making this determination, the majority disregards the obvious: the legislature, which represents the people of the state and is the best indicator of contemporary societal mores, expressly retained the death penalty for crimes committed before the effective date of (the repeal),” wrote Chief Justice Chase Rogers.

Santiago was sentenced to lethal injection in 2005 for the killing of 45-year-old Joseph Niwinski. But the state Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and ordered a new penalty phase in 2012, saying the trial judge wrongly withheld key evidence from the jury regarding the severe abuse Santiago suffered while growing up.

Santiago’s mother expressed joy Thursday that her son no longer had to fear execution.

“It’s a big weight lifted off everyone,” Christina Hagarty said. “Good things come to those who wait.”

Walter Bansley III, one of the attorneys for Komisarjevsky during his trial who also represents Santiago, said in a prepared statement that he was “very grateful to the untiring efforts of the public defenders’ office in opposing the death penalty in every forum.”

Bansley added that, “A death penalty case results in tens of millions of dollars being unnecessarily expended in situations where life in prison without the possibility of parole is more than sufficient punishment. It is not in dispute that it is substantially cheaper the house someone in a 6x9 cell for the rest of the life than for the state to attempt to kill them. This is clearly a fiscal victory for the state and a loss to lawyers and the experts that are retained in death penalty cases.”

But Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, slammed the ruling.

“Today Connecticut’s Supreme Court stepped way out of line and wrongfully took on the role of policymakers,” Fasano said in a written statement Thursday. “Their ruling deliberately circumvented the will of the people and the legislators who represent each and every Connecticut resident.”

The chief state’s attorney’s office declined to immediately comment on the ruling, saying it was still reviewing the decision.

Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Harry Weller had argued that there were no constitutional problems with the new law and that death row inmates simply faced a penalty under the statute that was in effect when they were convicted.

Connecticut has had just one execution since 1960. Serial killer Michael Ross was put to death in 2005 after winning a legal fight to end his appeals.

Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy issued a statement Thursday saying those who have been on death row will spend the rest of their lives in state prisons with no possibility of freedom.

“Today is a somber day where our focus should not be on the 11 men sitting on death row, but with their victims and those surviving families (sic) members,” he said. “My thoughts and prayers are with them during what must be a difficult day.”

Kevin Barry, a professor at the Quinnipiac University School of Law, said he was surprised by the ruling.

“I didn’t see that coming,” said. “This is a landmark case in Connecticut, and nationally, as well.”

Dr. William Petit, whose wife and daughters were killed by Komisarjevsky and Hayes, said in a statement Thursday that “The dissenting justices clearly state how the four members of the majority have disregarded keystones of our governmental structure such as the separation of powers and the role of judicial precedent to reach the decision they hand down today. The death penalty and its application is a highly charged topic with profound emotional impact, particularly on the victims and their loved ones. Justice Espinosa, in her dissent especially, forcefully and compassionately recognizes that devastating impact.”

The Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty applauded the court’s ruling.

“I am deeply thankful for the court’s ruling,” said Sister Mary Healy of West Hartford. “As a clinical therapist and family of a murder victim, I’ve seen up close the devastating effects that the death penalty and its prolonged legal process can have on families already struggling with tragedy of losing a loved one. Throughout its history, the death penalty in Connecticut has failed murder victims’ families.”

The inmates who were spared:

Steven Hayes was sentenced on six possible death penalty counts in the murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17, during a 2007 home invasion he committed in Cheshire, along with Joshua Komisarjevsky. They beat Hawke-Petit’s husband, William Petit, with a baseball bat. Petit suffered severe wounds but survived. Hawke-Petit was raped and strangled. The home was doused with gasoline and the girls burned alive.

Joshua Komisarjevsky was sentenced on six possible death penalty counts in the murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17, during a 2007 home invasion he committed in Cheshire, along with Steven Hayes. They beat Hawke-Petit’s husband, William Petit, with a baseball bat. Petit suffered severe wounds but survived. Hawke-Petit was raped and strangled. The home was doused with gasoline and the girls burned alive.

Daniel Webb was convicted in the kidnapping, attempted rape and shooting death of Diane Gellenbeck, 37, of Hartford on Aug. 24, 1989. Gellenbeck was a vice president of Connecticut National Bank.

Robert Breton was found guilty of two counts of murder and one count of capital felony for the beating and stabbing deaths of JoAnn Breton, 38, his ex-wife and their 16-year-old son, Robert Breton, Jr. on Dec. 13, 1987 in Waterbury. Both died after Breton severed major arteries. His original 1989 sentence was overturned in 1995 but he was sentenced again in 1998.

Richard Roszkowski shot his ex-girlfriend Holly Flannery, 39, her 9-year-old daughter, Kylie, and Thomas Gaudet, 38, of Milford on Sept. 7, 2006. A judge overturned his 2009 sentence because of an error made during jury instructions, but a jury again ruled for execution in 2014.

Sedrick Cobb was sentenced for the rape and murder of Julia Ashe, 23. He kidnapped her from the parking lot of a Bradlees department store in Waterbury in December of 1989. He drove her to a wooded area where he bound her wrists, ankles and head with tape and threw her 24 feet into an icy dam.

Jessie Campbell was sentenced to death row after shooting Carolyn Privette, who survived by playing dead, and fatally shooting her niece Desiree Privette, 18, and a friend LaTaysha Logan, 20, in Hartford on Aug. 26, 2000.

Russell Peeler ordered his brother, Adrian, to kill Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son, Leroy “B.J” Brown, Jr. in Bridgeport on Jan. 8, 1999. Prosecutors were going to call Leroy as a key witness in a trial against Peeler for killing Clarke's boyfriend, Rudolph Snead Jr. in 1998. Peeler was the state's only inmate sentenced to death row who did not commit the murders for which he was given the death penalty.

Todd Rizzo was found guilty of killing Stanley Edwards IV, 13, of Waterbury by striking him 13 times with a sledgehammer on Sept. 30, 1997. Rizzo lured the boy into his backyard with a false story they would be catching snakes.

Lazale Ashby was convicted March 28, 2008 for the rape and murder of his 21-year-old neighbor, Elizabeth Garcia, in her Hartford apartment. The crime occurred in December 2002, four days after Ashby’s 18th birthday. Once convicted, he was Connecticut’s youngest person on death row.

[LoveTrains]

I posted this like an hour ago but got crickets.

pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=15&action=display&thread=469771

There is a good NYT article on it and I think it will be interesting to see what national implications - if any - this might have for other states grappling with the issue.

[ttt]

Aug 13, 2015 22:30:18 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

I posted this like an hour ago.

Sorry I didn't see that thread. 

[NewOrleans]

Oh PUKE! Ugh

[LoveTrains]

Aug 13, 2015 22:31:38 GMT -5 ttt said:

Aug 13, 2015 22:30:18 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

I posted this like an hour ago.

Sorry I didn't see that thread. 

No worries let's discuss here!

[ttt]

If Bernie Madoff can get life in prison for stealing money from rich people, should there really not be a more severe punishment for someone who rapes and burns alive a child??

Or shooting an 8 year old in the head because he's a witness in a case against you? Or bludgeoning a 13 year old to death? Or gunning down a 9 year old girl as she tries to flee for her life, screaming "please don't kill me"? 

I just cannot accept that the death penalty is wrong for crimes like these. 

[heyjude]

Oh lookey there. More men killing women. And more women. And more. And more. And more. Dead women. All over the place.

[heyjude]

Do women matter?

[LoveTrains]

In this specific state, they already outlawed the death penalty as a future option. That was done in 2012 - passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. I can understand the logic in then saying it's unconstitutional to keep 11 people on death row for previous crimes. Isn't that part of the reason Manson isn't on death row?

[karinothing]

Aug 13, 2015 22:47:18 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

In this specific state, they already outlawed the death penalty as a future option. That was done in 2012 - passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. I can understand the logic in then saying it's unconstitutional to keep 11 people on death row for previous crimes. Isn't that part of the reason Manson isn't on death row?

Yeah I am ok with this, but we all know I hate the death penalty

[saz]

I'm torn on this. I agree with the decision, but I also think some people deserve cruel and unusual punishment. Why is Dexter not real?!