The Crimes and Trial of Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsy

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Recommended: Racial discrimination in the justice system

In 2007, Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsy committed a violent crime in Connecticut. These two men killed a mother and her two children. Ms. Hawke-Petit, the mother, was raped and strangled to death by Mr. Hayes and Mr. Komisarjevsy. The two men also restrained and raped her two young daughters. The daughters were raped, and then killed by smoke inhalation when Mr. Hayes and Mr. Komisarjevsy set the family’s home on fire. While the assault of his family was going on, Dr. William Petit was beaten and restrained by the two men. The state of Connecticut pressed a number of charges against the pair of criminals. Mr. Hayes was convicted of raping and strangling Ms. Hawke-Petit and killing the daughters, who died of smoke inhalation. Mr. Komisarjevsy was held accountable for his crimes against the Petit family in a separate trial. He was convicted of the killings and a slew of other crimes, including sexually assaulting the 11-year-old and taking indecent pictures of her on his cellphone. Although the two men faced two different trials, and juries, both men were sentenced to death. Komisarjevsy’s lawyers were adamant about changing his sentence due to his past. According to Komisarjevsy, he was sexually abused as a child, suffered from mood disorders and head injuries. He also abused drugs and self harmed. He also stated that his evangelical Christian adoptive parents denied him proper care, relying instead on religion (Glaberson, 2011). Komisarjevsy’s lawyer tried to use this to his advantage and crafted a defense based on the fact that he was a damaged person, who was worthy of life (Glaberson, 2011). This defense successfully changed the jurry’s minds, because Joshua Komisarjevsy was convicted with life in prison, as...

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...of which being children who had not yet had a chance to live their lives to the fullest. I truly believe that Joshua Komisarjevsy should have been sentenced to death just like his accomplice Steven Hayes. These men took three innocent lives, and ruined a third in the process. They had no reason to tear the life away from these innocent people. They should truly pay for this senseless crime, and not get to sit in prison for the rest of their lives. Sitting in prison is not punishment enough for these two men. Letting these two hardened criminals sit comfortably in prison for the rest of their lives is a reward for them. I sincerely believe that these two men deserve to die for the inexcusable crimes.

Reference

Hickey, E. W. (2013). Serial Murderers and Their Victims (Sixth ed.). Belmont, CA, USA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

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