Connecticut: Law Provides Guidance On How Former Death-Row Inmates Will Be Housed

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3pK7lU_kxLTdHXSxgP3SnK893jE1RiPNUQ7mOnXBOcF0lLnwspL8EZ3fV34MqHoWjjSgXxbzYc2VUxqtUCZ3yK07UoQH906f44jmLJB8GIPCxDPqyzCyJEXrx-UrrTwLW05AhGO5lOMI/s1600/Northern+Correctional+Institution+in+Somers%252C+Connecticut%252C+USA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Maximum-security Northern Correctional Institution in Somers" border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3pK7lU_kxLTdHXSxgP3SnK893jE1RiPNUQ7mOnXBOcF0lLnwspL8EZ3fV34MqHoWjjSgXxbzYc2VUxqtUCZ3yK07UoQH906f44jmLJB8GIPCxDPqyzCyJEXrx-UrrTwLW05AhGO5lOMI/s400/Northern+Correctional+Institution+in+Somers%252C+Connecticut%252C+USA.jpg" title="Maximum-security Northern Correctional Institution in Somers" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maximum-security Northern Correctional Institution in Somers</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Everyday life for Maryland's death-row inmates barely changed in 2014 when Gov. Martin O'Malley commuted their sentences to life in prison without the chance of parole.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They were already housed in general population," Gerard M. Shields, a spokesman for Maryland's Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said about the four men facing execution in 2013, the year Maryland abolished capital punishment."We didn't have a separate death row and they had the same rights as everybody else, so nothing really changed for them in terms of their housing."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now that capital punishment is officially in the history books in Connecticut, the question remains about how the lives of 11 formerly condemned prisoners will change.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Corrections officials are working to adjust their prison housing directives to comply with a state law regarding the incarceration of former death-row inmates and those now convicted of the crime of murder with special circumstances.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The law addressing those inmates, put in place when the death penalty was repealed in 2012, will likely keep the former death-row inmates away from the general prison population and locked up in maximum-security facilities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All 11 former death-row inmates, as of Friday, were still being housed in a special unit at the maximum-security Northern Correctional Institution in Somers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But now that Cheshire home invasion killer Steven Hayes has been resentenced, corrections officials are conducting a state-mandated "reclassification process" for Hayes that will dictate how he is managed in prison, Karen Martucci, acting director of the external affairs division of the state Department of Correction, said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Martucci said Hayes, who received six consecutive life sentences during a brief hearing in Superior Court in New Haven on Wednesday, is the only inmate going through the reclassification process. As each former death-row inmate is resentenced, he also will go through reclassification, Martucci said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reclassification involves placing an inmate on a "special circumstances high-security status" and assessing whether an inmate could be dangerous to staff and other inmates and belongs in either "administrative segregation," also known as solitary confinement, or protective custody, according to the 2012 state law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An inmate with a "special circumstances high-security" status will be placed with inmates with the same status in a maximum-security facility, the law states.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The conditions of confinement could include that the inmate's movements must be monitored and that he must be escorted by corrections officers. He could be moved to a new cell at least every 90 days, have his cell searched at least twice a week and not be able to have contact during social visits, according to the law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Work assignments will be allowed only in the assigned housing unit and the inmate will be allowed no more than 2 hours of recreational activity per day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The law allows the confinement conditions to be reviewed annually and changed "for compelling correctional management or safety reasons."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Martucci said the corrections department has its own classification system for prisoners but in the case of classification for the former death-row inmates, state law is superseding the department's policies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This statute is governing everything," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Connecticut abolished the death penalty in April 2012 but made the law prospective, meaning it applied only to new cases. Attorneys representing those on death row challenged the law, saying it violated the condemned inmates' constitutional rights.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In August 2015, the justices ruled 4-3 to ban capital punishment for all defendants, saying in the majority decision that Connecticut's death penalty no longer fit with societal values and served no valid purpose as punishment, a ruling they echoed in a decision last month that essentially ended prosecutors' fight to keep execution possible for those already on death row.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Susan O. Storey, Connecticut's chief public defender, said attorneys in the capital defense unit representing former-death row clients are poised to move forward with additional resentencings once they are notified about how corrections officials are interpreting the 2012 law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We're waiting to get some clarification on how this law will be interpreted and enforced so that each of the lawyers can decide how they are going to proceed," Storey said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hayes' accomplice in the 2007 Cheshire home invasion and killings, Joshua Komisarjevsky, is scheduled for resentencing in New Haven Superior Court in New Haven on July 26.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the resentencing in state court of Richard Reynolds, convicted of fatally shooting a Waterbury police officer, to life in prison without the possibility of parole, after the justices upheld his murder conviction but overturned his death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hearings for Reynolds and the remaining 8 inmates have not yet been scheduled.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In older cases in which a sentencing judge has retired, the criminal presiding judge in that judicial district will assign a judge to hear those cases, Melissa Farley, executive director of external affairs for the state judicial branch, said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Hartford Courant, June 19, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Abolition Connecticut Maryland Solitary confinement USA Connecticut: Law Provides Guidance On How Former Death-Row Inmates Will Be Housed

Maximum-security Northern Correctional Institution in Somers Everyday life for Maryland's death-row inmates barely changed in 2014 when ...

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Connecticut: Steven Hayes First Death-Row Inmate Resentenced to Life

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupDOOQ_kGW75wUXen7jGk3JClRfHwJY9BGEt7heOM7YCNB1npL0qIqekFnb6jV21sGOCp7kPCK3iwRGGLyESu4UTIDliJK6_0VEnBN1XBSCUaHNsV8GqrPQYAOCZrVK9lP5aNqFQXP9c/s1600/Steven+Hayes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Steven Hayes" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupDOOQ_kGW75wUXen7jGk3JClRfHwJY9BGEt7heOM7YCNB1npL0qIqekFnb6jV21sGOCp7kPCK3iwRGGLyESu4UTIDliJK6_0VEnBN1XBSCUaHNsV8GqrPQYAOCZrVK9lP5aNqFQXP9c/s320/Steven+Hayes.jpg" title="Steven Hayes" width="263" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steven Hayes</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">NEW HAVEN >> Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue scolded Steven Hayes for “the depravity of your character” Wednesday as he vacated the death sentence originally imposed in the Cheshire triple-homicide and resentenced him to six consecutive life terms in prison with no chance of parole.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hayes was convicted in 2010; co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky was convicted in 2011. A Superior Court jury in New Haven convicted Hayes on many counts, including murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree sexual assault.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Komisarjevsky also <a href="http://www.nhregister.com/article/NH/20111013/NEWS/310139954" target="_blank">was found guilty of murder and numerous other counts</a> in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17. Both men received death sentences but the state <a href="http://www.nhregister.com/government-and-politics/20160526/connecticut-supreme-court-upholds-abolishment-of-death-penalty" target="_blank">Supreme Court last year ruled the death penalty isunconstitutional</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Komisarjevsky is scheduled to receive a sentence similar to that of Hayes next month.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hayes and Komisarjevsky broke into the Petit house at about 3 a.m. July 23, 2007, and beat Dr. William Petit Jr. on the head with a baseball bat as he was lying on a couch in the sunroom downstairs. They tied him up in the basement. Then the perpetrators tied the girls and their mother to beds upstairs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later that morning, Hayes forced Hawke-Petit to drive with him to her bank and withdraw $15,000. Shortly after they returned to the house, Hayes raped and strangled her and one of the two perpetrators applied a match to gasoline that had been spread throughout the home. The girls died upstairs in the fire.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Petit was able to escape from the basement and crawl out of the house to seek help from a neighbor minutes before the fire erupted. Hayes and Komisarjevsky crashed the Petit vehicle into a police barricade nearby as they fled and were apprehended.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Petit, who testified during both trials and spoke at length and with great emotion about his family during the sentencings, was not in the courtroom Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Gary Nicholson, who prosecuted both defendants during their trials alongside State’s Attorney Michael Dearington (who recently retired), explained Petit’s decision not to appear.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I spoke to Dr. Petit about a week ago,” Nicholson told Blue. “He said he did not wish to take the opportunity as a victim to appear in court and make a statement. He said none of his other family members would be here. They’ve already said what they cared to say.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nicholson said he, too, had already said what he needed to say during the trials and sentencings. But he added that for “this horrendous crime, we ask for consecutive sentences, for the maximum sentence.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hayes, who now has a long beard and was wearing a yarmulke because of his religious conversion in prison, nodded and smiled at the reporters in the courtroom who covered his trial. He is much thinner than he was when he committed his crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Blue gave Hayes a chance to speak, he declined to do so. His attorney, New Haven Public Defender Thomas Ullmann, who defended Hayes during the trial, also refrained from making a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Blue, who presided over both of the trials, told Hayes as he stood before him, “I think the jury verdict spoke eloquently and the Petit family spoke quite eloquently. With the gravity of these crimes and the depravity of your character, nothing more needs to be said.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One by one, Blue handled each of the 16 original counts on which Hayes had been convicted. He began by vacating the three murder counts. He did this because a U.S. Supreme Court ruling specified this should be done with lesser included offenses of capital counts. Thus Blue also vacated the first-degree sexual assault count.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Blue imposed sentences of life in prison without parole for murder with multiple victims, murder of a victim under 16, three counts of murder of a victim of a kidnapping and murder of a victim of sexual assault.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition, Blue imposed 25-year sentences for each of four first-degree kidnapping counts, five years for third-degree burglary and one year for second-degree assault.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because Blue made all of the sentences consecutive rather than concurrent, he noted the total is six consecutive sentences of life without possibility of parole, “followed by 106 years.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Immediately after court adjourned, a reporter asked Nicholson if he had imagined being back in court on such a procedure. “Not this quickly,” Nicholson replied. “It is what it is.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Asked about Dearington’s decision not to come to the courtroom for the resentencing, Nicholson said, “He’s probably on a beach somewhere. I’m sure he’s enjoying his retirement.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also after court adjourned, Ullmann noted Hayes’ convictions are being appealed. Although Ullmann is not handling the appeal, he did note one of the grounds for it: on the second day of the trial, one of the jurors told Blue he didn’t like the way the prosecutors were presenting their case. The defense team wanted him to remain on the jury but Blue dismissed him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A hearing was held recently in the case against Komisarjevsky, who claims that key withheld information about the Cheshire police response should be considered as his attorneys appeal his conviction. They are calling for a new trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state Supreme Court also eventually will rule on whether Komisarjevsky deserves a new trial because of newly raised appeals issues, such as his original defense team not seeing all of the <a href="http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20151113/calls-detail-how-police-reacted-in-deadly-cheshire-home-invasion" target="_blank">Cheshire police dispatch tapes </a>from the day of the crime.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann called Hayes’ resentencing “a momentous and historic day.” He explained, “The first person who was sentenced to death is now sentenced to life without possibility of release.” Ten other men who have been on death row await resentencings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann added, “It’s a relief for many of us lawyers who have worked on this for so long, to see the elimination of this barbaric punishment from our laws.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann said he had “never lost faith” that this day would come. But he added, “I wasn’t sure that in my lifetime I’d see this happen.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He noted, “Connecticut has joined the movement where our whole nation is getting to, ultimately to eliminate the death penalty across the country. We’re getting to the point where it’s close to being abolished totally.” Nineteen states have eliminated capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann pointed out the only person put to death in Connecticut in recent decades was serial killer Michael Ross in 2005, because he “volunteered” to be killed; he dropped his appeals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“So the state never achieved getting somebody executed against their will,” Ullmann said. “It was an incredibly failed criminal justice policy. The costs to the state were enormous. This money could have been used for victims and treatment programs.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann, who joined a vigil of capital punishment opponents outside the prison when Ross was executed, said, “It’s such a relief to me not to ever have to attend (witness) an execution. We’ve moved forward in our criminal justice system.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann declined to reveal what Hayes said to him after the resentencing. As for Hayes’ yarmulke, Ullmann said, “He’s been practicing the Jewish faith for quite some time. He sees a rabbi in prison. He’s pretty principled about that.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann also addressed the question of Hayes’ mental state, especially given his suicide attempt during jury selection. “I’ve tried to talk him out of suicide. We’ve spent a lot of time doing that.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And so is Hayes now on a better path? “I would say it fluctuates,” Ullmann replied. “Life on death row was not pleasant.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During an interview with the New Haven Register in Northern Correctional Institution in September 2013, Hayes expressed remorse for what he had done. Facing the possibility of execution at that time, he said, “Death for me will be a welcome relief and I hope it will bring some peace and comfort to those who I have hurt so much.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20160615/steven-hayes-once-on-death-row-for-cheshire-triple-killing-resentenced-to-6-life-terms-in-prison" target="_blank">New Haven Register</a>, Randall Beach, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Convicted Killer 1st Death-Row Inmate Resentenced to Life</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 of 2 men sentenced to death for the slayings of a mother and her 2 daughters during a 2007 home invasion in Connecticut has been resentenced to life in prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Steven Hayes is the 1st of 11 death-row inmates to be resentenced since the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in August that their sentences violated the state constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">State lawmakers abolished Connecticut's death penalty in 2012, except for those already sentenced to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A judge on Wednesday imposed six consecutive life sentences on Hayes for the murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Haley and 11-year-old Michaela, in Cheshire.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hawke-Petit's husband and the girls' father, Dr. William Petit, was badly beaten but survived.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Associated Press, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Abolition Commutation Connecticut LWOP USA Connecticut: Steven Hayes First Death-Row Inmate Resentenced to Life

Steven Hayes NEW HAVEN >> Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue scolded Steven Hayes for “the depravity of your character” Wednesday as he ...

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Cheshire Killers Could Be Resentenced To Life In Prison Next Week

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRU_WPvvuEreAmNnd4WpNBT3tcsQPYv-E6IYUG4U8dVxEXXHb_yS56YKoeDRz88MuELr1ReiEC2qP4l44M-JYmo6Zkc1JQzx4FYuN13UEu2q6cMbSPOSwEn9He3zfraUV_BMx40cXjbis/s1600/Northern+Correctional+Institution+in+Somers%252C+Connecticut%252C+USA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Somers Northern Correctional Institution, Connecticut" border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRU_WPvvuEreAmNnd4WpNBT3tcsQPYv-E6IYUG4U8dVxEXXHb_yS56YKoeDRz88MuELr1ReiEC2qP4l44M-JYmo6Zkc1JQzx4FYuN13UEu2q6cMbSPOSwEn9He3zfraUV_BMx40cXjbis/s400/Northern+Correctional+Institution+in+Somers%252C+Connecticut%252C+USA.jpg" title="Somers Northern Correctional Institution, Connecticut" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Somers Northern Correctional Institution, Connecticut</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The death sentences of the Cheshire home invasion killers could be changed to consecutive life sentences at 2 separate hearings next week, the 1st proceedings to be held since last month's Supreme Court ruling that spared the lives of Connecticut's 11 formerly condemned murderers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue has scheduled arguments on pending motions by Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky that say the killers' prison sentences should be corrected now that the state's highest court has said the death penalty is unconstitutional for all in Connecticut. Hayes' hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. Komisarjevsky's case will be heard June 17.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The motions to correct the death sentences were filed in November following the Supreme Court's initial August 2015 ruling outlawing capital punishment for all in the state. When that ruling was appealed, Blue stayed the motions until after the justices ruled again on the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Following the May 26 decision, prosecutors in the Hayes case filed a motion June 3 saying that Blue should impose consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for Hayes. Prosecutors' response in Komisarjevsky's case could not be obtained Thursday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Connecticut abolished the death penalty in April 2012 but made the law prospective, meaning it applied only to new cases and kept in place the death sentences already imposed before the bill was passed. The provision was added after the high-profile trials of Hayes and Komisarjevsky, who were sent to death row for killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, during a July 2007 home invasion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The men tied up and tortured the family as they ransacked the Petit 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, William Petit Jr., survived but was severely injured.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After the 2012 repeal of the death penalty, attorneys representing those on death row challenged the law, saying it violated the condemned inmates' constitutional rights. The state Supreme Court agreed to take up the prospective issue during a hearing in April 2013.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In August 2015, the justices ruled 4-3 to ban capital punishment for all defendants, saying in the majority decision that Connecticut's death penalty no longer fit with societal values and served no valid purpose as punishment, a ruling they echoed in a decision last month that essentially ended prosecutors' fight to keep execution possible for those already on death row.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After last month's ruling, Chief State's Attorney Kevin T. Kane said prosecutors would "move forward" and seek resentencing for the 11 death-row prisoners. His office is currently working with defense attorneys on how to handle the remaining - and older - cases of Robert Breton, Sedrick "Ricky" Cobb, Daniel Webb, Richard Reynolds, Todd Rizzo, Jessie Campbell III, Russell Peeler Jr., Lazale Ashby and Richard Roszkowski.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Once the inmates are resentenced, state officials will have to determine whether the inmates should remain or be transferred out of Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, the state's highest security prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While on death row, inmates were subjected to solitary confinement and more restrictions than inmates sentenced to life without parole. They were housed in single cells and received fewer recreation hours and less access to prison programs and visitors.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Hartford Courant, June 10, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Abolition Connecticut LWOP USA Cheshire Killers Could Be Resentenced To Life In Prison Next Week

Somers Northern Correctional Institution, Connecticut The death sentences of the Cheshire home invasion killers could be changed to consecut...

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