Judge Gives Connecticut Killer Death Sentence

AP Photo

Joshua Komisarjevsky, 31, pictured above right, will die for his role in killing a woman and her two daughters during a home invasion that turned in a night of horror unequaled in the suburban area where it occurred. Steven Hayes at the left of the photo teamed up with Komisarjevsky andt tormented  the Petit family at their home in a suburb of New Haven. 


After raping and strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit, the convicted felons tied 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela to their beds and doused them in gasoline before setting the house ablaze. The girls eventually died of smoke inhalation. Hayes received the death penalty in December of 2010 for committing the crimes with such brutality. Komisarjevsky was convicted of the killings and of sexually assaulting Michaela, but he blamed Hayes for most of the crime.


Dr. William Petit, the only survivor, called that night his own "personal holocaust." When the two intruders entered his home, they beat him with a bat and tied him to a pole in the basement, rendering him incapable of rescuing his family. He spoke of his wife as a wonderful woman and confidante and referred to his children as "jewels."


That crime brought the momentum to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut to a halt and inspired tougher penalties for repeat offenders and burglary. Ham on Wry can offer no wry twist to this story. No excuse can mitigate the level to which Hayes and Komisarjevsky stooped in killing Jennifer Petit and leaving her daughters to dies a slow death with no means of escape. These two will never "rest in peace."