Almost three and a half years after the deaths of Hayley Petit, her mother and sister, a Connecticut jury recommended on Monday that Steven Hayes who was convicted of their murders this October be sentenced to death for his crimes. Hayley Petit was to have matriculated with the Class of 2011.
The jury deliberated for just over three days before reaching the verdict, asking for superior court judge Jon Blue's clarification on legal requirements for the jury to find mitigating factors.
After announcing the verdict, the jury said that although deliberation took more than three days, it was not due to any serious divide in opinion. Instead, the time was used to consider the complexity of the legal questions brought by the trial, The New York Times reported.
Several jurors noted that the horrifying and abnormally gruesome nature of the trial's subject matter was emotionally and psychologically taxing, according to The Times. The jurors explained that the verdict was difficult to reach because some jurors were upset at the prospect of execution, but that if the death penalty were ever to be used, it would be most appropriate for Hayes's case.
Blue will sentence Hayes on Dec. 2, according to FOX News.
Hayes has exhibited suicidal tendencies and previously told a psychologist that he wished to be executed, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Hayes's lawyers argued that he should not have received a death sentence because he was mentally impaired at the time of his crime, due to abuse during his childhood, the New York Daily News reported.
Prosecutors argued that both Hayes and his alleged accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevsky, deserve the death penalty for the horrific nature of their shared crimes, according to the Daily News.
The decision came on the same day that the Republican candidate in the Connecticut gubernatorial race, Tom Foley, conceded the election to Dannel Malloy, the Democratic candidate. Malloy will be Connecticut's first Democratic governor since 1986, according to The Times. The death penalty figured into the race for governor, with Foley coming out strongly in support of maintaining it.
In June, Gov. Jodi Rell, R-Conn., vetoed a bill passed by the state legislature that would have ended the death penalty in Connecticut, citing William Petit in her decision, The Dartmouth previously reported. Rell did not run for re-election.
Gary Rose, chair of the government and politics department at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., said that Malloy's election will likely mean the eradication of Connecticut's death penalty.
"Dan Malloy has said quite clearly that going forward we are not going to have the death penalty in this state," Rose said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "The death penalty will apply to those already convicted and on death row, so I'm confused about what will happen with [Komisarjevsky's] trial."
Malloy's decision to pass a bill banning the death penalty will directly affect the outcome of Komisarjevsky's trial, expected to begin in 2011. Public opinion in Connecticut is overwhelmingly supportive of the death penalty for both Hayes and Komisarjevsky, according to Rose.
"I don't know how Malloy's going to deal with it," Rose said. "It is possible that, for public approval ratings, he will renege on his decision because there is no doubt that, now that Hayes has been given the death penalty, Komisarjevsky will receive it too."
Komisarjevsky has pled not guilty to the charges against him and is awaiting trial.
Hayes will join nine others in Connecticut awaiting lethal injection the state's method of execution according to the Daily News.
It is likely that Hayes will spend many years on death row before being executed, according to the Daily News.
William Petit '78 Hayley Petit's father, who survived the attack has lobbied for the death penalty in the past three years but declined to testify at Hayes's sentencing because of concerns that it could give Hayes grounds for appeal, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Petit told reporters after the verdict was announced that he believed the jury's decision was just, but nothing could alleviate his suffering, according to the Daily News.
"There's never closure," Petit told the Daily News on Monday, "There's a hole. There's a hole with jagged edges. Over time, the edges may smooth out, but the hole in your heart and the hole in your soul is always there."
The jury foreman, Ian Cassell, echoed this sentiment in an interview with The Times, noting that the trial weighed heavily on every juror and the verdict left an overwhelming sense of loss.
"All the jurors were really emotional," he said. "No one is happy. Nothing is better. Nothing is solved."
