the penalty phase will begin today.
hayes could address the jury if he wishes during this proceeding. he'd be stupid to do it.
the jurors will decide life or death.
Connecticut has executed only one person since 1960. Serial killer Michael Ross was put to death by lethal injection in 2005. and it took them 20 years to do that.
there are 10 people on death row in CT.
the prosecution was smart. no point in rehashing all the aggravators for a shellshocked jury. they will probably never forget what was done to the family. now the defense has to somehow mitigate what happened, what hayes did. i don't think he'll get any sympathy. poor defense lawyer has a tough job here, but he has to do it.
from ABC News:
Defense attorneys trying to spare convicted murderer Steven Hayes the death penalty for his role in the murders of a Connecticut mother and her two daughters plan to employ character witnesses and his history of drug abuse as part of their strategy.
"At this point, you must have an open mind as a question of punishment," public defender Patrick Culligan told the jury today, the first day of the sentencing trial, which is expected to last about two weeks.
"You will learn that he has a long criminal history of being a burglar and a thief and a person who has for a long period of time in his life [had] a serious drug abuse addiction," he continued. "You will also learn he could be a good worker ... he could be a likable person."
But whether or not being a sometimes "likable person" is enough to spare Hayes life is debatable for the jury who sat through weeks of gruesome evidence before finding Hayes, 47, guilty on 16 of 17 felony counts for the murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11.
The prosecution rested its case before noon, calling just one witness --- criminal court clerk John Dziekan -- to present Hayes prior convictions.
"Ninety-nine percent of the evidence we rely on has already been put before you," State's Attorney Michael Dearington said today during his opening statement.
Evidence in the sentencing phase, the bulk of it from the defense, is scheduled to be heard early this week and into next week, with closing statements expected by Oct. 29.
Culligan told the jury today that he had as many as eight witnesses who knew Hayes before the 2007 home invasion for "insight as to who Steven Hayes was before he committed the crimes."
Hayes, dressed in a white collared shirt with black stripes, made little movement during the morning's events, much as he did during his trial.
Dr. William Petit, the sole survivor of his family's massacre, was in the audience. Petit announced earlier this month that he will not give a victim impact statement during the penalty phase.
In a statement, Petit cited what he considers to be a lack of clarity in Connecticut law regarding the reading of victim impact statements, saying it is not well-defined whether such a statement should be read by the victim himself or by the prosecutor and whether or not such a statement should be presented prior to or after the sentencing.
Petit said he feared that "this lack of clarity" could be used by an appellate court to rule that a victim impact statement improperly influenced sentencing.
"I do not presently intend to seek to offer a victim impact statement in this case precisely because of my concerns that it could be used (wrongly) as a basis for appeal and possibly even a new sentencing trial," Petit said.
this is long, but details today's defense tap dance. hayes was a saint!
he's been misjudged! it's the other guy's fault!
Hartford Courant:
NEW HAVEN — Lawyers trying to keep triple murderer Steven Hayes off death row will introduce testimony about a second defendant's role in the crime, as well as evidence that Hayes was a good worker, cared for his family, and was driven by a drug addiction, a defense attorney told jurors this morning.
Those same jurors on Oct. 5 convicted Hayes of 16 charges — including six punishable by death — in the deaths of a Cheshire woman and her two daughters. The jury will now decide his fate in the trial's penalty phase, which began today and is expected to continue into next week.
Defense Attorney Patrick J. Culligan urged jurors to keep an open mind in what he called a "most difficult and trying" case.
"By your verdicts, he no longer has the presumption of innocence," Culligan said. "But there is no presumption at this point that the death penalty is the appropriate punishment."
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Culligan said the defense today would call six to eight witnesses who have crossed paths with Hayes.
Ex-Court Worker
The first defense witness was D'Arcy Lovetere, a Winsted resident and former court judicial marshal who worked primarily at the courthouse in the Bantam section of Litchfield.
Initially, she said she knew Hayes years ago because he "had a crush" on her daughter, who was a teen at the time. "He would chuckle about it and I would chuckle about it," she said.
She would later see him around Winsted and later in court when he was arrested.
Hayes came around her home but she said she was not concerned.
She later became an investigator and social worker for the public defender's office and said she last saw Hayes shortly before the July 2007 killings in Cheshire.
Today in court, Lovetere said she did not recognize Hayes at first. Hayes, seated next to his public defenders, dressed in navy pants and a collared white shirt with vertical blue stripes, looked at Lovetere as she spoke.
"Frankly, I wouldn't have recognized him. He's lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw him," she said.
When she would see him at the courthouse, Lovetere said, Hayes would talk about "how desperate he was to get a hold and stop the behavior" that landed him in jail.
"He was always a gentleman," she said. "He was always remorseful. This was a man who wanted a life."
She later learned he became a father. "He was very proud of that," she said.
Lovetere said she would suggest to Hayes that he seek drug treatment and he did.
In one group setting during his treatment, she said, her client and Hayes called 911 when another member started having a seizure during a meeting.
She said Hayes was "very motivated to work."
Another client told her Hayes was addicted to crack cocaine.
When asked if the crimes that brought Hayes to court were violent, Lovetere said they were not. "No, I am certain of that," she said.
When asked to describe Hayes as a criminal, Lovetere said he was "a real klutz."
"He wasn't the best criminal in the world for sure," she said. "His addiction overtook him. He would do things that were really foolish and he knew he would get caught."
She said he was also a follower.
In about May 2007, she ran into him in town. "He was struggling," she said, adding that he did not elaborate on how far his drug addiction had gone.
Two months later, while going into work at the courthouse in Litchfield, a co-worker told Lovetere that Hayes had been charged with the Cheshire killings.
"When he told me it was Steven, it knocked the wind out of me. I couldn't believe it," Lovetere said. "I was shocked, just shocked."
During cross-examination, Prosecutor Gary Nicholson asked Lovetere if she was aware that Hayes' work history was "rather minimal." She said she was not aware of that.
Nicholson used the cross-examination to list Hayes' string of burglary convictions, asking if she knew whether he was a "follower" in those crimes. "I have no idea of that," she said.
Nicholson pressed Lovetere about Hayes' being remorseful, asking her whether defendants say they are remorseful in court so they can fare better in front of a judge.
She said defendants do say they are remorseful to get a more lenient sentence.
Under re-direct, Lovetere clarified that when Hayes had a crush on her daughter, he was a teen, too, only a few years older.
Family Friend
The defense's second witness, Robert Palmer, a maintenance worker, lived in the same housing complex as Hayes and was friends with Hayes' brother, Brian.
Palmer, who said he was nervous about testifying, described Hayes' mother as "nice" and "hard-working."
"She always had two or three jobs. She cleaned houses," he said.
Palmer was 14 when he became friends with Hayes' brother. He recalled how Hayes would get arrested for "mainly burglaries," and Palmer said he had heard that Hayes had broken into cars.
Palmer said he did not recall Hayes' being involved in violent crimes and said he was "shocked" to learn Hayes was charged in the home-invasion killings.
He said Brian Hayes is not close to his brother and does not want to have anything to do with him.
Under cross-examination, Palmer said Hayes' brothers were not in trouble with the law and have jobs. He said Brian Hayes and Steven Hayes "never got along."
Prosecutor Michael Dearington asked if the brothers' rift was because Hayes was involved in trouble.
"Yeah, that's possible," Palmer said.
Apartment Manager
Eileen Mullen, an apartment manager, said Hayes came to her office in May 2007 to get an application for an apartment.
She said Hayes told her he was unemployed but said he recently was hired as a construction worker. When asked if he had a problem with her doing a background check, he admitted it would "be a problem."
"I reached for the application and said, 'Please don't bother,'" Mullen said.
Former Employer
Christiane Gehami, owner of a West Hartford restaurant, testified that she hired Hayes as a dishwasher and pantry cook in September 2006.
She said she learned he was living in a halfway house at the time and showed her a token that showed he had been dry.
Gehami said "it went well" with Hayes on the job. She and a manager would sometimes give Hayes a ride back to the halfway house.
"He was good-natured," she said. "He was jovial. He made people laugh."
She said Hayes would talk about a woman he had a crush on who would come into the restaurant. She said he would wait for her.
One day, she and another employee had an argument and the employee left. When the employee returned, she said, Hayes told him he should "not talk to" Gehami that way, and the two men fought.
"What Steve was doing was protecting me," she said.
Hayes left the job in October 2006. In July 2007, Gehami learned Hayes was charged with the killings.
"What was your reaction?" Culligan asked.
"I thought, no way, it's a mistake," she said.
Gehami said when some work needed to be done at the restaurant, Hayes suggested Komisarjevsky.
On the day Komisarjevksy appeared there, she balked at his offer to do work moments after stepping outside to meet him.
"I thought I was looking at the devil," she said. "My skin crawled. My hair stood on end."
Under cross-examination, Dearington asked, "Why did you think you were looking at the devil."
"Dead eyes," she replied.
Book Passages
Earlier today, Culligan said Joshua Komisarjevsky, also charged in the murders, will play a large role in the penalty phase. He said there will be lengthy testimony from Brian McDonald's 2009 book, "In the Middle of the Night: The Shocking True Story of a Family Killed in Cold Blood," which leans heavily on prison interviews with Komisarjevsky.
The 244-page book gives Komisarjevsky's detailed version of what happened the night Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, were killed during a home invasion and robbery inside their Cheshire home. Dr. William Petit was beaten during the ordeal, but survived.
Komisarjevsky, who will be tried next year, claims Hayes killed the family.
After the slayings, McDonald interviewed Komisarjevsky three times at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield and received from him more than 200 pages of handwritten notes. The book intersperses quotes taken directly from letters Komisarjevsky wrote to McDonald that include horrific details about what happened inside the Petit home.
Also this morning, Culligan said the defense team wants jurors to learn about Steven Hayes as he was before the murders. "Some of what you will learn will not be flattering to him," Culligan said. He has a long criminal record of burglaries and thefts.
But Culligan said testimony will also show that Hayes was a good worker and was caring toward his family.
"You will learn he could be a likable person," Culligan said.
He said psychiatrists will also testify about Hayes' mental condition and corrections officials will discuss his living conditions at the prison.
Culligan said he will also offer testimony about a longtime drug addiction Hayes had that forced him to turn to crime to "fuel and satisfy" his need for drugs.
"Many of his life choices were about fueling and satisfying his drug addiction," Culligan said.
And because of that, Culligan said, jurors will learn that Hayes spent most of his adult life in prison.
In brief opening statements, New Haven State's Attorney Michael Dearington told jurors they could rely on the evidence in deciding Hayes' punishment.
Hayes of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, during a July 2007 home invasion at their Cheshire home.
Standing at a makeshift podium in front of the jury box, Dearington said the state would look to three aggravating factors:
Whether the murders of the Petit family were committed in an especially cruel, heinous and depraved manner
Whether Hayes created a grave risk of death to another person
Whether Hayes killed the Petits while committing the same kind of felony for which he had been previously been convicted, third-degree burglary.
Testifying for the state late this morning was Jack Dzekian, a clerk in the criminal clerk's office in New Haven. Dzekian testified about certified copies of criminal docket sheets he had in front of him on the witness stand that showed criminal convictions for a Steven Joseph Hayes.
Those convictions included multiple convictions for third-degree burglary in January 1981, March 1993, October 1996 and October 2003.
With that, the state rested.
Judge Jon C. Blue began the court day by telling jurors what they should expect in the penalty phase, where they will decide whether Hayes should die for the crimes.
Blue called it an "awesome' decision "that will be made by you and you alone." He urged jurors to keep an open mind.
Blue also told them that, while feeling sympathy for either side is natural, their decision on Hayes' punishment should be based strictly on the evidence.
He also reminded them not to be exposed to any publicity about the case, not to conduct their own inquiries about the case, and not to discuss the case with anyone.
from ABC News today. in attempt to mitigate what hayes did.
confessed burglar said he "lost control" while beating Dr. William Petit with a bat before going on to murder Petit's wife and two daughters and admitted he started to "enjoy it," according to his journal entries read in court today.
The 43 pages written by Joshua Komisarjevsky were presented in the penalty phase of Steven Hayes' murder trial. Hayes was convicted of breaking into a Cheshire, Conn., home in 2007 and murdering Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11. The mother and one of the girl's was also raped.
Komisarjevsky, 30, will go on trial for the murders later.
A jury is now hearing evidence to determine whether Hayes, 47, should be executed. The judge allowed the letters and diary to be presented to help the jury determine the culpability of each man and their "relative evil."
Hayes' lawyers hope the diary will show the jury that Komisarjevsky was the ringleader on the night of the Petit murders and spare Hayes the death penalty.
"I'm not an angel," Komisarjevsky wrote. "I've never claimed to be. The scars on my soul have forever defined me as different than others."
Komisarjevsky said that he "resented" the implication that he raped Michaela and wrote that he had "spared her that degree of demoralization." Admitting that he did in fact sexually assault her, Komisarjevsky wrote, "In a vulgar display of power, I ejaculated onto her."
"As for why? It was the accumulation of years of pent up aggression," he wrote.
Komisarjevsky admits in the journal to taking photos of Michaela after the assault, images he wrote that he planned to use to blackmail her parents.
"What I was not prepared for was my demons getting the better of me," he wrote.
Hayley was the fighter of the family, according to Komisarjevsky, who claimed the father was "passive" toward saving his family.
"If you don't want to defend your family, then take your chances with the criminal while police sit outside and follow protocol," wrote Komisarjevsky.
"Hayley is a fighter. She continually tried time and time again to free herself," he wrote. "Michaela was calm. Mrs. Petit's courage was, is, to be respected. She could have stayed inside the bank where she was safe."
In a cruel twist, Komisarjevsky scoffed at William Petit's escape the night of the attack. The father was bound in the basement, got free and ran to a neighbor's house to call for help. Before help arrived the house was engulfed in flames.
"Mr. Petit is a coward, he ran away when he felt his own life was threatened," Komisarjevsky wrote. "Time and time again I gave him the chance to save his family."
William Petit, who has attended every day of the the court hearings, sat stoicly through the accusation.
Turning some of the blame on Hayes, Komisarjevsky wrote, "When Steve took the life of Mrs. Petit, he took it to a whole new level."
"I am what I am and make no excuses," he wrote. "I am a criminal with a criminal's mind, and my anticipated death sentence will be a sentence of mercy."
The composition notebooks that contained Komisarjevsky's writings were discovered by Rafael Medina, a detective for the Connecticut State Police, who testified that he was alerted in July 2008 that Komisarjevsky was corresponding with author Brian McDonald, who wrote "In the Middle of the Night: The Shocking True Story of a Family Killed in Cold Blood" about the Petit murders.
Four journals were seized from Komisarjevsky's prison cell. McDonald deposited $100 into Komisarjevsky's prison bank account at least three times and the two men exchanged as many as 11 letters.
In his journals Komisarjevsky claims that once he started beating Dr. Petit it "released a leash too hard to rein back in."
"I was faced with the shocking realization that in some respects, I enjoy it," he wrote. "They were experiencing what I experience every day."
Komisarjevsky appears to question his actions, writing, "I am not proud of the outcome of July 23."
The journals also depict a sense of regret by Komisarjevsky, who writes, "Michaela, angel of my nightmares. My pain to yours does not compare. How could I have turned my back walking out that door knowing your fear and sorrow?"
"Michaela, Haley, Jennifer - forgive me please," he writes. "I am damned, take my life."
hayes, the man trying to avoid the death penalty for his role in the gruesome triple murder during a Connecticut home invasion, has tried to kill himself multiple times while behind bars, according to court testimony heard today.
Dr. Paul Amble, a Yale University professor of psychiatry who conducted a four hour evaluation of Hayes earlier this year, testified that the defendent has made multiple attempts to commit suicide while incarcerated, once as recently as August of this year.
Amble told the court that Hayes tried to kill himself "several times" prior to the Petit murders, and admitted to wanting to die after the July 2007 triple murder as well.
"[Hayes] described his persistent desire to die were because of his feelings of guilt, remorse and his condition of confinement," said Amble.
Since entering the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, Hayes has attempted to overdose on a variety of pills. In October 2007, prison authorities found 20 pills that Hayes had hoarded in his cell and in January 2009 puncture wounds on his left forearm were spotted.
In January, Hayes "ingested a toxic level of thorazine," an anti-psychotic drug that Amble testified Hayes was not prescribed.
In August, just a month before his trial was slated to begin, Hayes tried to overdose on Ibuprofen, according to Amble.
Hayes told Amble that he often fantasized about killing himself, and even thought about sticking his head in the toilet in his cell and doing a back flip, presumably to break his neck.
Entering prison at 200 lbs, Hayes has since lost 70 lbs, in part because of his paranoia that the prison staff was "contaminating his food."
Hayes, unlike his lawyers, told Amble that he'd prefer the death penalty to life spent in prison.
The details of Hayes' life in prison and suicide attempts come a day after the jury considering whether to condemn him to death heard the twisted reasoning of Hayes' co-defendant about how the home invasion morphed into a horrifying massacre.
“He told me ‘I’m going to hurt you,’” the officer stated in the report.
“I’m going to rip your heart out and shove it down your (expletive) throat,” Hayes said, according to the report.
NEW HAVEN, Conn.—The man convicted of killing a mother and her two daughters in a 2007 Connecticut home invasion allegedly threatened to kill a corrections officer earlier this year while awaiting trial, a revelation that could further damage his chances of avoiding the death penalty.
The threat was brought up Monday, the fourth day of the sentencing phase in the trial of Steven Hayes trial. Earlier this month, a jury found Mr. Hayes guilty on 16 of 17 charges—including six death-penalty eligible ones—finding that he was responsible for the brutal Cheshire murders. The same jurors will determine whether Mr. Hayes gets life in prison or receives a death sentence.
prosecutors—arguing strongly for the death penalty—hit back hard Monday, suggesting Mr. Hayes could be a risk to corrections officials if he's not put to death.
State's attorney Michael Dearington drew from a March disruption report, one of dozens against Mr. Hayes over the years, stemming from an incident in which a corrections officer said Mr. Hayes threatened to kill him.
"I'm [basically] on Death Row anyway. I have nothing to lose," the disruption report quoted him as saying.
Mr. Hayes admitted to making the threat, authorities said, and was penalized 20 days worth of recreation and visitation while awaiting trial.
Patrick Culligan, an attorney for Mr. Hayes, didn't attempt to refute the accusation, but pointed out corrections records that indicated his client wasn't considered a violent threat while in custody.
Mr. Culligan took issue with the prosecution's suggestion that Mr. Hayes would be afforded several liberties—such as television, phone calls, visitation time, ample time outside his cell and schooling—if he were given life in prison.
He used testimony from a recently retired Corrections Department official to make his point. "When I was working for the agency, he would not have been released into the general population" of prisoners, said Fred Levesque.
Closing arguments in the sentencing are tentatively slated for Friday, and the jury is expected to begin deliberating on the penalty early next week.
poor monster!! he was abused and has a FUCKING SMELLY SNEAKER FETISH! that explains everything! sorry, nothing funny about this case, but i had to laugh at that one! sick pathetic fucker.
Childhood Abuse Is Cited for a Convicted Killer of 3
NY TIMES
Published: October 27, 2010
NEW HAVEN — The man convicted of killing three people in Cheshire, Conn., grew up in a “very dysfunctional” family, with a violent father and an alcohol-abusing mother and was sexually abused as a child, jurors who will decide whether to sentence him to death were told on Wednesday.
The testimony came from a psychiatrist who interviewed the convicted killer, Steven J. Hayes, in prison while he was awaiting trial. It represented the first move by the defense toward seeking sympathy for Mr. Hayes, who has been the subject of intense animosity since his arrest.
The witness, Dr. Eric Goldsmith, portrayed Mr. Hayes, now 47, as suffering from attention deficit disorder as a child and described his family as chaotic, with his father beating him and a brother and pitting one child against another in fistfights. Dr. Goldsmith said records showed that Mr. Hayes’s father once hit one of Mr. Hayes’s two younger brothers so severely that he broke the boy’s leg and a tooth.
“Steven very early on turns toward drugs as a way to basically cope with his emotional problems,” Dr. Goldsmith testified in what is expected to be the last week of testimony. For much of his life, Mr. Hayes abused alcohol and drugs, including crack cocaine, the jurors have heard from other witnesses.
Mr. Hayes was convicted on Oct. 5 of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters in a home invasion in Cheshire on July 23, 2007. The same jury, which heard Dr. Goldsmith’s testimony and that of several other witnesses, is expected to begin deliberations about what penalty to impose next week.
The defense move toward a request for sympathy appeared to contradict a pledge that one of the defense lawyers, Patrick Culligan, made during his opening statement as the jury began considering what punishment to impose.
Mr. Culligan said then that the defense would not be presenting evidence about any “terrible childhood” as it argued for a sentence of life without the possibility of release. “That simply is just not going to be part” of the defense, he said.
The defense lawyers offered the jurors no explanation for their change. Under a court order, the lawyers are barred from making statements about the case outside of court.
But in the courtroom, Dr. Goldsmith’s testimony left no doubt about the bleak picture the defense was presenting. He testified that Mr. Hayes was beaten by his father, began committing crimes to pay for drugs as a teenager and has a sexual fetish because of sexual abuse by a baby sitter when he was 10. Dr. Goldsmith said Mr. Hayes’s fetish was an erotic fixation with used sneakers. OH SHIT! I HAVE NOW HEARD EVERYTHING!
Excuse making bitch. Many people have crappy childhoods who go on to be productive individuals. He's a lazy fuck who didn't try to better himself and who now has the extreme audacity to shift the blame to others for how he turned out.
NEW HAVEN — The jury in the penalty phase of the Steven J. Hayes triple-murder case lost another member Friday, after a court clerk told Judge Jon C. Blue she overheard one juror tell another that statements being made by a witness or defense attorney were “bullshit.”
With the rest of the jury absent, Blue asked the juror who was the recipient of the comment to confirm what the clerk said she had heard. The juror did so.
Defense attorney Thomas Ullmann then asked that the juror who made the remark, Joanne Bruneau, be dismissed. Blue agreed.
“I need to make sure the jury is impartial,” Blue said. “The remark is clearly improper.”
Blue called Bruneau into the courtroom and told her he was sorry, but he would have to let her go. She accepted his decision with a nod and departed, leaving just one alternate and 12 regular jurors.
Blue later told the remaining jurors that, because of longer-than-anticipated questioning of witnesses this week, he no longer thinks they will begin deliberating Monday or Tuesday.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A Connecticut judge has rejected a defense motion to dismiss the last alternate juror in a deadly home invasion trial after she showed romantic interest in a court worker.
The judge said Monday that a "middle school note" the juror attempted to pass to a court security officer Friday was "spectacularly poor judgment" but did not affect her impartiality. A clerk intercepted the note.
A defense lawyer called the note "disturbing." Prosecutors opposed the motion, saying the juror has been paying attention.
NY TIMES
NEW HAVEN -- The prosecution called for the death penalty during closing arguments Thursday at the trial of Steven J. Hayes, the man convicted of killing a mother and her two daughters in a home-invasion in Cheshire, Conn. But the defense had Mr. Hayes stand mute before the jury box as the chief defense lawyer made an argument that Mr. Hayes should be sent to prison for life because that is the more severe punishment.
“Life without the possibility of release is the harshest punishment for Steven Hayes,” the defense lawyer Thomas Ullmann said. "It is a fate worse than death for him."
When Mr. Hayes stood briefly and walked to stand next to his lawyer, in a baggy blue shirt and beltless pants, Mr. Ullmann spoke quietly.
“You may not like him,” Mr. Ullmann said, "You may hate him. But he’s not a rabid dog."
Mr. Hayes seemed awkward; he looked down. Execution, the defense lawyer said, "would be the easy way out for him." But the prosecutors said a death sentence was the only proper response to the crime.
"If there ever was a case where the facts and the law require such a penalty, it is this case," said Gary Nicholson, one of the prosecutors, urging a capital sentence for Mr. Hayes, who was convicted of capital crimes on Oct. 5 by the jury that is now considering whether to impose a death sentence.
Mr. Hayes, 47, a parolee with a long criminal record, was convicted of entering the home of the Petit family with another long-time criminal in a home invasion that included sexual assaults and ended with the deaths of the mother and her two daughters, ages 11 and 17, in a fire started by the intruders.
"It was horrific," Mr. Nicholson said, "It was shocking. It was vicious. It was brutal. It was evil."
Mr. Nicholson argued that the jurors should disregard the defense claim that Mr. Hayes was a mere follower — a "klutz" in the description of a defense witness — and said he played a full role in the crime. "It could not have been done by one person alone," Mr. Nicholson said. "Just imagine yourself in that house" throughout the seven-hour ordeal, Mr. Nicholson said.
Jurors are expected to start deciding Mr. Hayes’ fate either later Thursday or Friday. Only one person has been executed in Connecticut in 60 years, a serial killer who waived his appeals.
(11-04-2010, 01:08 PM)Lady Cop Wrote: November 4, 2010
“Life without the possibility of release is the harshest punishment for Steven Hayes,” the defense lawyer Thomas Ullmann said. "It is a fate worse than death for him."
there are ALWAYS one or two assholes on a jury. even 12 sometimes, as in oj's case.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- After a day of deliberations, jurors in the penalty phase of the Steven Hayes trial continued deliberating on Saturday.
While it is uncommon for jurors to deliberate on the weekends, Judge Jon Blue gave jurors deciding whether Hayes is sentenced to death the option to continue after a decision was not reached on Friday.
The jurors are now working to come to a verdict if Hayes should receive the death penalty.
After a full day of deliberating on Friday, jurors indicated they were split over factors which could keep Hayes off death row. The jurors wanted clarification on unanimous in regards to statutory mitigating factors. The foreman indicated jurors were divided 10 to two.
If one of those mitigating factors is found, for example, the claim that Hayes’ mental state was impaired during the home invasion, he would automatically get life in prison.
Blue told jurors they all needed to be in agreement and to continue deliberating.
edit: jurors did not come to a decision Sat., will return Sunday at 10 AM.
"This is the first time I cried in a while," said Hawke-Petit's sister, Cynthia Renn. "It's really hard to go home with this being unresolved. I wish we could have seen conclusion, but there will be one way or not."
Dr. William Petit, the sole survivor of the attack, said Saturday that he is completely exhausted.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The Rev. Richard Hawke was sitting in a Connecticut court Saturday while a jury deliberated whether a man should receive a death sentence for killing Hawke’s daughter and two granddaughters, when he noticed the defendant’s brother struggling.
Hawke said he approached Matthew Hayes, whose brother Steven was convicted last month of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters — 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela — during a brutal home invasion in 2007 in Cheshire.
"He was like he was in prayer," Hawke said. "He looked like he was maybe moved to tears."
Hawke said he introduced himself and shook Matthew Hayes’ hand.
"I said I saw you’re struggling and I just wanted to tell you I was sorry you had to go through this," Hawke said. "He said he’s also sorry we had to go through this."
that explains everything! sorry, nothing funny about this case, but i had to laugh at that one! sick pathetic fucker.
![[Image: Zy3rKpW.png]](https://i.imgur.com/Zy3rKpW.png)
