Aug 31, 2010

Hayes' lawyer sounds off again- this time tries to inject race issue where none exists!

I actually hope that Thomas Ullmann continues along this vein throughout the rest of this trial because ultimately, he is only helping the prosecution.


 By vilifying himself -( and his client by association who needed no help in that dept) he is losing complete credibility with what seems an incessant stream of baseless verbal assaults made upon the lone surviving victim of a triple homicide that his client has admitted a heavy hand in.



Rule number one for any legal professional representing someone accused of violent crime, particularly capital crimes involving this level of brutality, do not, I repeat, do not go after the victim. And certainly do not "call out" the victim, as it were. It's not only morally repulsive but its bad lawyering to boot.


Now much as I hate to, lets address the crux of Ullman's latest whining to the court:


First of all it should be pointed out that the true intended audience for these ludicrous accusations involving the Petit case, Race, minoritys and the death penalty, is quite transparent:


This whole issue concerning the color of the Petit victim's skin and Dr Petit's income and profession, has reared its ugly head before. And you better believe that Thomas Ullmann is well aware of it: Soon after the crimes occurred in 2oo7, Governor Rell called for a special session of the Connecticut legislature. This session was called based upon the discovery that the two men caught fleeing the Petit murder scene were both on "early release parole "


In both cases, the decision to parole them was made without the benefit of either one's criminal history or case file -only a sheet of paper containing each mans last solitary arrest incident! This, when both men had managed to accrue over 30 felony charges in their lifetimes and over 20 felony convictions each. The disparity between arrest charges and convictions is c/o the plea deal model that Connecticut employs as its first line of adjuducating criminal cases. IE charges dropped within these "deals"


Ultimately, the Petit crimes served as a watershed for long overdue clean- up of some serious flaws in Connecticuts judicial system, particularity within the daily operations of The Connecticut Parole board, who it turns out had been putting the public at risk for years by making life and death Parole decisions, without the benefit of an inmates crimnal records never mind an actual eye to eye meeting with the inmate.



At that time" administrative parole" as it was called, was the norm in the state. This term meant that the inmate who was up for early Parole, did not even meet with the Parole Board members, so that they could have the benefit of asking the inmate key questions and take note things such as eye contact, body language and thus, their overall likelihood of re-offending.
*This method has thankfully changed due to some of the crime bills that evolved from the 2008 crime bill reform sessions.


At this special legislative session ie meeting, called by the Governor, who incidentally is Republican, there were a surprising amount of mutterings from the mostly democratic house members, who seemed to feel that the Petit case, although admittedly "awful and tragic" was getting special attention from the Governor-and The state because... get this : the victims were white, the surviving victim was a doctor, and the family lived in an upper middle class suburb.



I for one, could not believe my ears as I listened to the recently televised legislative session on the local Connecticut Government channel. The reason for this special session was called was specifically to address the overt failings in our judicial/parole system that had led to two men with over 26 felony convictions each, serving in one case merely a third of his sentence and the other case just under a half of his sentence. Sentences, which by the way, were already liberal to begin with, considering the amount, and the seriousness of the crimes that landed these men once again in front of a judge

.

Clearly having no other avenues to pursue insofar as an actual defense, Ullmann recently resorted to his signature pugnacious aggressiveness now aimed pre-trial no less at the survivor of the crimes committed by his client, mostly because Dr Petit refuses to be a good little victim and disappear or at least shut up. Mud-slinging at a man whose families been wiped out in the cruelest fashion is really not a good idea and mostly it attempts to distract from the real issues here.



Ullmann recently declared within the courtroom in front of the news cameras, that had the victims been black or Hispanic, they would already be serving life sentences and the state wouldn't be seeking the death penalty. This is about as irresponsible and despicable as one can get.
Stirring up muck and hatred and indeed encouraging divisiveness between people of different race and color merely for the sake of distracting from his clients guilt is unforgivable.


Did the state not pursue the death penalty against the accused killers of little B.J and Karen Clarke ten years ago ,Mr Ullmann? In case of point, the state sought the death penalty not only for the actual trigger man, but for the man they believed gave the order to kill the Clarke's, as well as the man who drove the getaway car. Both Karen Clarke and her son B.J were African Americans. The whole state grieved for them, most of us who knew the details of the case were furious that as key witnesses in a well known dangerous murder trial, the system didn't protect them well enough. In fact a new law was passed by the Connecticut legislature to ensure proper and complete protection of all private state witnesses, they entitled the legislation the Karen and BJ Clarke law.



And what makes all of this especially ironic is that Attorney Ullmann himself is "an upper middle class white man " who would likely be considered a" prominent member of the community" if God Forbid his family and/or he, were victimized in a similar fashion !
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I cannot help but wonder if this situation were to present itself, how Mr Ullmann would react if a lawyer that represented the man that raped and killed his wife and children, was employing these same kinds of disgusting tactics?


I think its a fair bet to assume that Ulmann, notoriously combative and napoleonic would show none of the restraint nor class that William Petit has shown  throughout this arduous and cruel ordeal, this is for certain,


In my opinion, how Ullmann has been carrying himself in this case makes him more evil than the killers and rapists that he defends for a living. That said, I highly doubt that Mr Ullmann gives such things a moments thought. Instead he puts his energies into "winning" at any cost: victim baiting, slandering and constant whining would lead one to believe that he was the wronged party, the victim as it were.

In the end it is about crude maneuvers designed to distract from the cetner stage issue- his clients glaring guilt. And within this latest race accusation, he is trying to grab up any support from wherever he can. albeit in a willy-nilly fashion that reeks of desperation.


First its the anti death penalty activists, then minority legislators that feel the death penalty is disproportionately given to minority offenders. While these are valid issues, it would be nice if any of them had a thing to do with this criminal trial. Ullmann is using racially based hate rhetoric that he knows is parallell issue within the Connecticut legislature, as an opportunistic ploy, hoping to sling enough mud in enough directions to a) lessen the public's support of Bill Petit and thereby lessen his power as an extremely sympathetic survivor, victim and activist


 B) draw as much attention away from the fact that his client is responsible for raping and strangling a mother of two,while her children lay tied to their beds within earshot as did Bill Petit crumpled and semi--conscious, bleeding from head wounds tied to a pole in his basement awakened by his wifes moaning..

Does it get any worse Mr Ullmann?


To any decent human being, the mere horror of what Dr Petit lived through,and the subsequent loss of his entire family, children that he nurtured from the time they were born, should warrant at least a modicum of respect -no matter which "side" of the case they are on..


We've seen none of this basic human decency with Thomas Ullmann,.
Bill Petit was a talented endocrinologist before these crimes were committed against him and his family. within the commissions of the crimes, he suffered traumatic brain injury severe blood loss and damage to the delicate inner ear system, causing daily vertigo.


Most of the injuries were due to repeated severe blows to his skull with a baseball bat by one or both of the defendants as they sought to disable the biggest threat in the house. They took a real chance that they could kill him via those blows to the head.


Many people have died from one single punch to the head. \He was beaten as he lay sleeping, so that Mr Hayes and his side kick couod more easily pursue the real prize, the main motivation for breaking into this particular home on this particular night. To restrain, terrorize and sexually assault Jennifer Petit and her 11 year old daughter, Michaela, who were both singled out, stalked and followed home from a trip to the supermarket earlier that same evening.

I have personally watched with great respect and a growing admiration how Bill Petit conducts himself, both with the press ,who are now perpetually staked out in front of the New haven courthouse, beginning with the pre-trials and later- the jury selection, which lasted well over a month.. Something that many people forget is that Bill Petit is a victim himself ,and this is likely because he never speaks of his own injuries which are substantial and long lasting, nor his own personal pain and trauma.



The same crimes that ultimately stole his family, his home and his life also left him with permanent physical injury as well as what must be a severe case of Post traumatic stress disorder. This kind of trauma is something that never truly leaves a person. It becomes part and parcel of every fiber of ones being. Yet despite having every reason to be hateful, cynical and indeed, filled with rage ; rage at the men that committed these cruel and evil crimes, rage against the Connecticut court system and parole board that negligently set these repeat offenders loose upon an unsuspecting public, despite voluminous criminal records that defied the imagination.



Rage against many members of the Judiciary committee and legislature, who rather clandestinely pushed through a bill to abolish the death penalty in the midst of the Petit family case.
Rage against one of the men that instigatedthe killings, for meeting surreptitiously with a writer for the purposes of helping co-author a book about the crimes including graphic description of the brutal assault on the sleeping Dr Petit and the sexual assault of eleven year Michaela Petit.

Rage against the author of this book for seeking to profit from a set of crimes that have not even been tried nor resolved in a court of law. Rage against the Cheshire local library for choosing to put this horrible book upon their shelves, despite a huge outcry and petitioning from all over the state and beyond.

No, despite the crimes and all of these wrongs and other moral insults Bill Petit does not speak with hate, nor rage, though many of us would understand and forgive him if he did. He remains a soft spoken decent man, a man who chooses his words carefully with seeming thoughtfulness, consideration and decency. He does not sensationalize, he does seek pity, he does not hem and haw and he most certainly does not whine - a characteristic that I personally find especially repulsive in Attorney Ullmann.


Which brings me to another of Ullman's nonsense accusations; Bill Petit does not "hold press conferences outside of the courthouse at every break " This was Ulmann most recent strategic lie to the presiding judge-and the Connecticut public at large, because as Ulmann knows that members of the media in the courtroom, record every word spoken at every hearing.


So despite the gag order Ulmann has been using the court as a platform for whatever latest BS he is trying to foist upon the Connecticut public at large- and thus his Jury.


Ullmnn has also tried to demand that the judge remove the gag order from the case, citing his desire to basically have it out and "respond in kind "to victim William Petit's courthouse step interviews. Interviews which are in reality very low key, respectful and cursory at best, a far cry from the perpetually mouthy Ullmann.


Despite the very palpable pain that covers every inch of Bill Petit's countenance these days, he not only refrains from bad-mouthing the attorneys for the men that stand accused of strangling and raping his wife and assaulting and murdering his daughters, he consistently carries himself with a quiet dignity each and every time that the press approach him, including the many inopportune moments when I'm sure he and his family would much rather be left alone to deal with the draining emotions created by days spent in a courtroom just feet away from the very man who raped and murdered his loved ones and burned his home up in the process.


What is likely on Bill Petit's mind these days is an unwavering commitment to a obtain justice for Jennifer Hayley and Michaela and TO continue to carry on their Collective sense of values; idealism, kindness and good works through assisting other victims of violence, mostly within the framework of the non profit foundation named after his murdered family .www.petitfamilyfoundation.org/


Note The Petit family foundation is a three year old charity started shortly after the crimes It has quietly helped hundreds of victims of violence, through projects such as the recent subsidizing of a desperately needed domestic violence shelter within the hartford area. PFF also raises considerable monies for other groups of people who are suffering and in need, many of whom fall between the cracks of more mainstream charities.

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