I recently happened upon a comment that I made months ago on a certain persons Blog in response to a post by said person who, believe it or not, a diatribe that was supposed to serve as type of closing argument on Joshua Komisarjevsky's behalf - Or as he liked to call him "Josh" A much more innocuous sounding name, for a a convicted child rapist/ murderer, who is anything but innocuous.
I don't wish to draw attention to this person's blog, for he is an ego driven imbecile who has attacked the surviving victim of these atrocities as well as the victims other family members, but suffice to say that I only need mention it as a point of reference for it it in response to Norm Pattis's foolhardy op-ed in the Hatrford Courant that I began what started as a comment but turned into a manifesto of sorts
By laurel O'Keefe on October 20, 2011 3:32 AM
First, lets address this claim that Josh" as you referred to him, "offered to plead guilty a long time ago".....
Your casual use of this innocuous sounding nickname for a man convicted of raping and murdering an eleven year old girl gives you away from the get-go; You are what has now become a banal breed of lawyers, so much so that your verbiage is even a tell.
"Josh" as you so casually refer to him, did not offer to plead guilty to all of the charges against him from the start, (ie making all of this expensive justice stuff unnecessary) and what he and his lawyers did offer" was certainly not motivated as an act of largess or magnanimosity, as you imply merely by the convienent over simplification of facts;
Komisarjevsky's attorneys, made an unofficial offer to plead to certain charges - with certain stipulations - in exchange for life in prison for "josh" ( also their casual sounding nickname for their murderous client) of course providing the death penalty was completely pulled off the table.
It's amazing that so many anti-death penalty advocates swear that the DP is not a deterrent and yet...... watch to what lengths the murderers/ rapists and their state financed lawyers always go to avoid even the mere prospect of being on "death row".
I say prospect because let's face it, as we have clearly learned in this state, from facts and figures and the embarrassing Michael Ross debaucle, the death penalty is, practically speaking, a death penalty concept, a sterile threat; It never happens, thanks largely in part to our legislators and lawyers and many legislators are lawyers) who have, in effect crippled purposely the Death Penalty, because they don't like the idea of it, for a spectrum of reasons, none of which would likely matter to them if a crime such as the Petit sexual assaults and murders happened to thier families. Truly! Watch how fast thier minds would change.
And this is really a moot point anyway, Poll after Poll has proven that the people of Connecticut, as Blue as it may be , are a practical lot when it comes to violent predators; the people of this state want, no demand, to reserve the right to impose the Death Penalty for its very worst offenders who are convicted of capital murders that fit a certain criteria of aggravating factors that must be proven in a court of law by a jury of his or her peers. And may I say that as a state we are extremely discerning in our mere pursuit of this sentence.
However, as you are well aware the built-in limitless appeals processes have rendered the concept of being put to death once given the death penalty which takes an awful lot of suffering and carnage in the first place - a joke; a sword with a very dull blade that one must literally rub someone to death with.
So what we wind up with are lots of people like you who have the audacity to use the argument that the system that you have helped cripple and in the process of crippling, make very expensive - for the state and other peripheral entities, as the very reason we should stop using it, and take the easy way out right from the start following a brutal gaggle of capital crimes committed against innocent persons, including murder and rape of children.
What kind of imbecilic argument are you making here, OR is this just more of the same armchair contrarian B.S that you hope brings you the much desired attention that your egoist narcissism seem to feed upon.
While its true that Connecticut plea bargains nearly 98 percent of it's violent crime cases, thereby making trials a thing of the past, spoiling prosecutors and criminal attorneys, who for the most part are no longer courtroom litigators but deal makers, BS artists, car salesman, or actually more like USED CAR SALESMAN. ... ahem.
Joshua Komisarjevsky offered to plead guilty unofficially because he was caught red handed fleeing a murder scene in the murder victims car with enough evidence to sink his ship. You seem to be saying that as a society and a criminal justice system, we are obligated to take the easiest and now the cheapest road to conviction of any kind, to hell with the fact that our state law at the time of these crimes did in fact dictate that such capital offenses that Mr Komisarjevsky knowingly engaged in, were punishable by the death penalty. And yet, they carried out those crimes nonetheless and from much of the evidence not with a first time murderers apprehension, panic or fear, but rather a sociopaths power - fueled glee.
I am betting that you don't believe half the BS that you spout here and elsewhere on the Internet; That this has become your "shtick" a gimmick, a persona which you've adapted, much like the Rush Limbaugh's and the Howard sterns. But the really sick sad part is that three human beings were yanked out of their beds kidnapped, sexually assaulted, dressed up in schoolgirl outfits and tied posed in obscene positions tied up and cell phone photos taken of her.
Michaela Petit's clothes were cut off her just minutes before she was assaulted and then bleach was poured over her in attempt to kill of the final bit of DNA that might remain from Joshua Komisarjevsky, or as his lawyers and Norm Pattis call him - "josh"
Then knowing that the man of the house the girls dad had escaped the cellar, Joshua and his hand chosen accomplice quickly doused both Petit girls with gasoline
Both girls had just listened as their beloved mom was jumped on by Komisarjevsky immediately upon returning to the house, he tied her up including a rope around her neck.! What was she thinking as she walked into her home, having given Hayes the money( who then gave it to Komsiarjevsky the leader) and hoping praying the men would now leave her family alone.
Komisarjevsky immediately tied her hands and her neck and legs, readying her for death. Steven Hayes sexually assaulted her having waited at Komisrajevsky's insistance until they got the money, or else Jennifer Petit would have never complied with the men knowing that they were truly evil. They wanted her to believe as Komisrajevsky hasd assured her over and over they just wanted money and theyd be on thier way"
She begged for her life and Komisarjevsky described in great detail in an interview with writer Brian Macdonald, how her voice became a squeak as her larynx broke first in one place then the other. The rape and strangulation took minutes upon long minutes. Josh paced in and out of the room with the baseball bat in his hands.
What happened next is a key piece of evidence proving that Komisarvsky was not the panicked second hand man who was quote "frozen" thoughout the Hayes led murderous ending of these crimes, as he and his lawyers have tried to sell us from the time of his arrest.
"Josh" whose voice was the only voice that Petit was familiar with as he was the man who had beat him tirelessly with a bat spraying his Coumidin - thinned blood all over his sun room, now said, in a decidedly much more sinister voice :
" Don't worry... it will all be over in a few minutes...."
As Petit described very specifically, this tone was a sharp change from the tone the same man had been using earlier with him. This was when Komisarjevsky needed Dr Petit's cooperation and compliance, (ie otherwsie, if the man knew he was about to rape and kill his family in the end he mightve struggled) right up until that last moment as soon as Mrs Petit was murdered, Komisarjevsky who claims to have been "frozen and unable to react" couldn't help himself from taunting the man whose home he had basically taken over, whose family he had raped and stripped of all of their power and dignity, who whom he would now ultimately finish off.
His voice was the only one that all of the family members were familiar with. Hayes said nothing. Dr Petit cited that only the man who beat him spoke and Komisarjevsky himself admitted to speaking with Michaela and Mrs Petit at length.
Thus, josh", as you call him, took a moment to yell down the stairs to Dr Petit, who hearing the terrible thumping and moaning that he thought might be his wife tried to yell something up at the men on the floor above him, but brain injured and severe blood loss caused it to come out a garbled non human sounding mess. (I have had that same type of brain injury and know exactly what Dr Petit meant when he related this detail whilst testifying)
It should be noted that Komisarjevsky has since taunted Dr Petit both within his writings to Author Brian MacDonald as well as his interviews and within his Journals and writings confiscated from his prison cell, where he surely knew they'd make their way to the public, and thus the surviving victim - William Petit Jr.s, attention.
In classic sociopath/ narcissist form, Komisrajevsky is actually bitter and angry that Petit survived, leaving a witness, and wrecking his plan - making his life more difficult!
And that's exactly what Joshua komisarjevsky did, he set his plan into action, eliminating the witnesses and getting rid of any DNA evidence as small as a hair from his head, the men pouring gasoline purchased earlier that morning took different areas, all over Jennifer Petits limp body with her pants still pulled down and her head bent against the couch, up the stairway and into first Hayley's room which he doused liberally and made his way into Michaela's bedroom where the gasoline was now almost empty and he poured its contents on the little girl whom he had just molested all morning and sexually assaulted, memorialized his crimes with a series of pedophile cell phone photos that he could look at over and over again.
The girls likely panicked and screamed as they realized what was about to happen. One of the police officers outside the house claimed he heard a girl or a womens scream shortly before the house lit up in flames.
It is in these moments that my heart and soul is forever trapped. The same holds true for Jennifer Petits return to her house having given the money to Steven Hayes dutifully expecting the men to do as they promised and " be on their way as soon as they got the money"
Instead, Komisrajevsky admits tying her up, claiming Hayes suddenly became the bossy leader and ordered him to. This of of course makes no sense but it adds to the notion of Komisarjevsky participating in Mrs Petits murder. The same woman he talked softly to and reassured so conbvincingly that they would leave once given the money.
But it is really in these moments that define this crime for me ; the shocked Jennifer Petit and her rising panic realizing that these men were going to kill her and her family, is something that as a human being I cannot help but relive with her.
komisarjevsky turned his back and walked away running now because the men had seen Dr Petit escape rolling across the grass in the rain straight to a neighbors house. He knew the police would soon be on their way. he hopped into the Petit's car and when Hayes didn't come out quickly he ran back in to see why' Hayes couldn't get the matches lit supposedly--too nervous or something, Komisarjevsky always the expert, likely sparked the flame in a rushed disgust and threw it onto the strategically gassed up home. The men ran out of the Petit's home laughing according to swat team police who has set up a perimeter.
Hayley Petit was so doused in gasoline as was her bed that it is thought that her binds pantyhose simply burned through and she found herself running through flames in a direction she thought was out. Her clothing was on fire and the heat unbearable, the smoke blinding choking, She succumbed, despite her love for her sister and her will to help, she was human and she fell face down at the very top of the stairs.
Michaela died still tied to her bed but her feet on the floor looking like she had desperately tried to get away from the flames and heat. Her skin was damaged from intense heat and blackened. The pillowcase over her head had melted to her face. Her blond hair was still intact. Her clothing bleached and cut from komisarjevsky's scissors.
If the death Penalty did not exist, neither one of these men or their attorneys rather, would have offered to plead guilty in exchange for life without parole. With the bar lowered and the threat of the death penalty gone, any lawyer worth his salt would direct their client to take their chance with a trial as they had nothing to lose" ie the worst thing that could happen would be a jury or judge sentencing them to life without parole, which theyd get in any event, whereas the better outcome and ever in the minds of lawyers within reach- would be life with the chance of parole, or 20 years which in Connecticut equates to 12 , subjecting the victims family to attend parole hearings every 2 years as the Sharon Tate family was compelled to do once the Manson killers death sentences were commuted to life with chance of parole in California.
With no death penalty as a possibility however faint, the State of Connecticut will be trying every single one of these cases, costing the State milllions and backlogging our courts and miring our already too thin prosecutors in many large city superior Courts.
The individual voire dire that Connecticut uses for jury selection would cause a back log of even bigger proportion for any capital murder trials, and the money spent on all of this including the prosecutors who are also paid by the state and public defenders acting as the defense attorneys- (both men in the Petit crimes have utilized three public defenders each as have hundreds of other indigent defendants.)
We would have a monetary ripple effect that no legislators or anti-death penalty proponants including attorneys, ever talks about when insisting upon the abolishment of the death penalty.
So beyond the fact that every poll taken shows that the people of this state by far want to keep the death oenalty for the worst of the worst cases, as well as the huge time and money expense issues involved in abolishing it, not to mention the gigantic increase in all crimes formerly punishable by the death penalty - we would have a crisis on our hands of huge proportion.
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