For anyone interested in Judge Blue's official, and extremely articulate - denial of the latest baseless, arrogant and time -consuming motion on the part of Joshua Komisarjevsky's Public Defenders, you can find the motion ( inane prattle as per usual) and more importantly the official denial of said motion, here
http://www.scribd.com/doc/60059632
This link brings you to my personal Laurel Okeefe Scribd account, which can be easily searched via google Goodsearch and other search engines. For those interested, I will be publishing most of the pertinent documents concerning the State of Connecticut vs Joshua Komisarjevsky as they become available to me on SCRIBD, as I did in the State of Connecticut vs Steven Hayes, accomplice in the murders, rapes kidnappings and assaults of the Petit Family in Cheshire Connecticut in July 2007.
Incidentally, the "time consuming" element of said motion is in fact part and parcel of the motion's very existence, nay, purpose, as is nearly every one of attorney Bansford and Donovan's veritable obscene deluge deluge of empty motions that they have written and filed pre-trial in the Joshua Komisarjevsky case.
Imagine, they have only just finished the Jury selection and these two lawyers have filed more motions than most lawyers file within 20 trials, and although Judge blue a surprisingly wise and insightful man, is well aware of the lawyers intentions to drag out the process and attempt to frustrate the prosecutor, the Petit family and the Judge, into throwing up their hands and simply say 'ok you win "no more -we can't take this anymore! Forget the Death Sentence, take the Plea deal' ie the one that komisarjevsky lawyer's officially offered in front of the court, to the press whining that they'd been "Ttrying to save everyone- especially the Petit Families, the unnecessary anguish of a drawn out trial, with accompanying upsetting testimony and images...By offering to plead their client guilty in exchange for life in prison( and no death sentence)
The prosecutor handling the Petit Family murder cases has steadfastly pursued the death sentence for the murderers of the Petit familyfrom almost day one for both defendants; Steven Hayes, first to be tried and now convicted sits on death row awaiting his lawyers auto-appeal, The prosecutor was very clear that this was his decision not the petit family or any other extended families of the victims. He stated that he rarely and very cautiously purues the death penalty even in capital murder cases yet after two three days deliberating came to the conclusion that this case was so brutal, so horrible, with so much suffering took place because of it, that he felt it appropriate
Yet he perfunctorily sits down with his clerks and writes beautiful and sound legal reasoning citing appropriate cases in which each and every one of these lawyers points are nullified to absolute dust.
What Donovan and Co.'s "legal strategy" clearly is is slowwwwwwww down the wheels of justice,to a veritable standstill and at the taxpayers expense no less) This way he wont have to get to the actual "defense" of his client, whom he has already as much as admitted his client was guilty as hell when he offered multiple times to Plead guilty in exchange for taking the death sentence off the table.
That client, for those of you who might yet be unaware, is in fact the self declared brainchild of the kidnapping, assaults, rapes and subsequent murders of the three members of the Petit family, including his targeting the family after spotting 11 year old Michaela Petit and her mother Jennifer, at a Local Cheshire Stop and shop where he followed them home at a stealth distance deciding then and there to check out their house for a break in/ based upon his desire to rape the slightly older looking 11 year old girl who had just experienced a summer growth spurt and was entering puberty.
Note; Komisarjevvsy has a history of pedophilia attraction and behavior within his past, and when he did "DATE ( between stints in and out of prison and robbing houses, something he bragged about freely)"
it was consistently with much much younger girls, including the mother of his child who was five at the time of the Petit murders, and the mother of that child was 15 when she gave birth.
Do the math.
This was a man on the prowl, who, with aforethought and malice, targeted planned and executed (including the help of another sexual predator and life long thief from prison Steven Hayes) he chose this particular home invasion which he carried out that very same evening/ morning (3 am was the mens admitted entry time into the Petit's peaceful slumbering home once spotting William petit sleeping on his sun porch with some books on his chest)Komisarjevsky easily picked a basement door lock and once upstairs proceeded to bash Bill Petit in the head "as hard as if chopping wood" anywhere from 6 to 12 times depending upon which confession/ interview, he has given immediately rendering the male of the home bleeding profusely with a traumatic brain injury and fighting to stay conscious as komisrajevsky ran to open a door to let hayes in the two men bound petit hands and feet and ultimately tied him to a pole in his cellar with ZIP-TIES like the Police use which the men brought with them along with a faux 9 mm lookalike gun(it was a pellet handgun bought that day at komistrjevskys demand by Hayes.
All of this violence was not about robbery as both sets of lawyers have tried to imply; Komisarjevskys own words as well as Hayes have betrayed exactly their sick and evil motivation; rape. A house full of pretty women and now the one male based upon a desire to rape an eleven year old pretty, blonde, sweet little girl named Michaela Petit.
For those of you not familiar with Michaela and her life, please visit the Forever Michaela link to the right of my blog with the other link listings.
Michaela, like her sister Hayley, was also murdered and at the very least, sexually molested, her body was found on the stairs, severelyy burned, as she has somehow managed to escape her binds and running amok as her bed was consumed in flames (from the gas that the men poured on her and her sister as they lay helplessly tied to thier beds obviously knowing what the men were likely about to do.
Mr komisarjevsky actually took partially nude and nude cellphone photos of both girls, the photos discussed in terrible detail during the Steven Hayes trial testimoney. Michaela Petit was a lovely 11 year old girl beautiful inside and out, and her life ended in the most cruel fashion - being burnt to death among her stuffed toys, gasoline accelerant poured upon her and her bed, she was helpless tied to that bed tragically and infuriatingly having just been sodomized by Joshua Komisarjevsky.
Komisarjevsly was a man, just freed from prison months months earlier whose ankle tracking bracelet from the DOC was JUST REMOVED TWO DAYS PRIOR, who decided that he would escalate his life long "extreme sport hobby" of home break ins,(-which he did almost exclusively while the homeowners were home at night- otherwise he found the break-ins, which were in fact home invasions (and should have been charged as such, all carried the potential for great violence)" too boring".) This piece of well known information came from Komisarjesvky himself as well as both his ex girlfriend, and the separate mother of his child, not to mention dozens of friends" acquaintances confessions and his 2-3 interviews with crime writer Brian MacDonald.
He also mentioned the high he got from knowing that the often female home dwellers were in the house as he creepy crawled through their home and their belongings sometimes taking pictures of the women and lingerie and other personal items. This is also a major red flag and should have qualified Komisrajevsky as a strongly potent sex offender in the making at his Parole Hearing, in which he was not even present nor was his criminal file, as the parole board claimed it was usually the case due to interdepartmental arguments over who should pay the copying costs, the prosecutors or the warehouse with the written records, depending upon where the files were at the time of the early release parole"
Also, previous confessions to various police departments whose jurisdictions held Houses that Joshua komisarjevsky was caught having broken into, (his break-ins covered multiple counties in Connecticut and he was already once given a sweet plea deal for the first "string" which the judge decided to render his 6 month term awaiting trial for the second string" over 22 houses this time, as time served" Therefore he was to serve 9 more years and 6 years special parole as the unusually savvy prosecutor and judge in the second string judicial proceedings(another plea deal-no trial) seemed to be aware of the distinct danger that this baby faced 25 year old posed to the law abiding residents of this state.
Komisarjevsky actually served less then two years in prison in solitary confinement having complained via his elderly parents that he was being picked on by other inmates. He was then shipped off to a halfway house which permitted him far more freedom than a prison. one of these houses is where he met his future accomplice Steven Hayes, and when I am sure they both hit upon their shared interest in rape torture and a fantasy of living that out with some money thrown in for good measure. The only reason komisrajevsky did not rape sooner is because at 5 11 and 128 lbs he was far from an imposing force and could never get a family home under control without another criminal male with stronger physical force and equal interest in rape and control of women.
In any event......
Mr. Komisarjesvksys lawyers had a lot of nerve motioning for a second probable cause hearing, after summarily waiving their clients first one at the appropriate time shortly after the crimes occurred like every other murder defendant, as well we all knew the waiving was for what was clearly manipulative and strategic reasons/
But the real point here was my awe of the otherwise rather plain spoken and down to earth Judge Blue, a man who has been presiding judge in both accomplice Steven Hayes case as well and the Komisarjevsky trial despite his lawyers trying to have Judge Blue removed as soon as they saw how savvy he was while they were allowed to attend the Hayes trial.
With all of this said , we are back to Judge Blue's formal judicial denial of Komisarjevsk'ys lawyers motion for a second probable cause hearing,it is in a word; simply spectacular; I ecourage all who care about such things to please have a read. While all of Judge Blues written rulings on the thus far mountain of motions have been surprisngly loquacious and from a legal standpoint unbelievably thorough and inpenetrable insofar as a possible source for future mistrial declarations) this one is more of a masterpiece than some of the others.
And btw when i refer to the komisarhevsky lawyers mountain of motions its for lack of a more sunstantial term; but never mind the term flurry" which the mainstream media keeps calling this inordinate amount of Donovan/ Bansford motions on behalf of thier client joshua komisarjevsky this overused copycatted word first of all is not accurate enough and more importantly to me it almost sounds as if the media and presss are not getting it right---as usual. This only makes the defense attorneys appear to be working within normal papameters for legal counsel for this man
I plan on attending portions of this trial due to begin in September, although we can count on Mr Donovan attempts to delay this already twice delayed trial set date. In any event I will continue posting the most pertinenet of the court documents as they become available to me on my SCRIBD account under my name Laurel OKeefe, the same as I did during the Hayes trial. Please feel free to email me via the adress found on my profile link. Ive taken the cooments section down for now as it became too distracting and attracted too many folks looking to gain attention by appearing to be contrarions to victims of violence. Its a shame because I did enjoy a fair amount of the feedback and intelligent banter. I may reinstate thisfunction if the good base readership continues and the arses stay mute and the hacking,/spyware//adware spammers go away....We'll see.
In the meantime; Godspeed to the Petit's Hawkes, Renn and Chapman families, There are so many of us standing with you and willing to hold you up through our prayers and our collective strength and committment during this trial where Justice will be served
Jul 9, 2011
Public videotapes police brutality in New Haven?
This story and the accompanying video footage of a recent occurance of Police brutality in New Haven Connecticut, is extremely disturbing.
The first two officers could clearly be seen beating and slamming their "suspects" head into the pavement, punching, stomping and kicking him repeatedly while the man lay moaning and screaming out in pain, helpless, face down in the middle of the street, shouting out something about a shoulder injury and he couldn't put his arm behind his back ( to anyone watching it is obvious that the man had some kind of shoulder injury that prohibited his arm going behind his back, a fact that his mother later corroborated for the media. I had a rotator cuff tear as a kid and I cannot put one arm behind my own back without it causing excruciating pain, as well if a person ever experienced a disclocated shoulder they cant do the same!
In reality, these particular cops were going to beat this guy BADLY no matter what he did,
or didn't do with his arms behind his back , that much is obvious. The shoulder injury just makes this whole ugly episode even worse.
In viewing the video one can see that as soon as the second police car pulled up, the first two officers, who were in the midst of severely assaulting their prone, helpless prisoner" backed off substantially as they also suddenly started yelling very loudly stop fighting stop fighting (which the man was not doing) for the benifit of the onlooker in the SUV that had pulled up and was clearly oggling the brutal attack.
Its likely that the first two doing the beating were typical abusive type-cops and unsure of what officers might be in the second squad car, (IE were they decent, by the book, rule abiding type cops or..were they part of the degenerate -cop club, like themselves, clearly sharing the mindset be it spoken or unspoken, that over- the- top physical force was just fine thank you very much and indeed their damn right as cops as they seemed to employ theyre violence with gusto as one notes while watching this infuriating video.
Even if the back-up police officers weren't directly abusive towards suspects, like they were, they almost always always will still tow the "old blue wall ethic" as was done here right for the eyes of the probing cell phone video camera. For those unfamiliar with the blue wall" Its an age old unsoken rule that cops dont tell on eachother even when a "good cop is extremely uncomfortable with whats gone down in the apprehension of a suspect or often the abuse of a suspect once he's in custody, which happens far more often than most Connecticut residents would ever imagine.
The old 'we don't tell on other cops even when they clearly have abused their power ' is
alive and well and in 20/20 display, all the way from the other cops arriving in the multiple squad cars, the obvious apprehension and unwillingness to stop their fellow officers from what was clearly police brutality to the words from one of those fresh back up cops arriving well into the bloody scene - at the very end of this home video if you listen carefully, you can here one of those police officers saying --and it wasnt a question it was a statement meant to be understood by all present " he had a gun, he had a gun, right, right!
There was no gun present on that man and no danger of a gun being used on them as they held him down tasered him stomped kicked punched and slammed his head into the pavement. And what wil you bet that the guy was some crack dealer they spotted on the corner that ran out of a natural instinct. Beatings like this happen every week in New haven and other cities in Connecticut.
And lest anyone assumes wrongly, I am far from a "bleeding heart liberal": In fact, I am an anti-crime activist, lobbyist as well as a survivor of violent crime.
Once a registered Democrat (now turned independent) I have learned to listen and best solve the issues at hand and ignore all the partisan BS as it only divides us. As such within Connecticut's legislative politics - especially concerning crime, the courts and crime victims rights, I now generally lean toward Republican views, This, simply because
. Disappointingly even "good cops" are prone to this age old unspoken reality for fear of being outcasts or worse, and they will sometimes either lie for a bad cop or cover by simply claiming that they "didn't see" the illegal cop behavior -like this one-- take place, rather than be considered a "snitch".
And yes, this kind of thing in varying degrees, still goes on every day in both bigger Connecticut cities,and believe it or not, smaller suburbs. Suburbia has their own bad cops and they often travel in packs-I have borne witness to outrageously abusive cops in towns within Fairfield County Connecticut for example; just as there are many, many decent, respectable and courageous Police officers,
deserving of our collective respect and appreciation, there are still plenty of cops that abuse their power on a daily basis and it takes a lot of cooperation and or apathy ie remaining mute about it from other police officers from the same force, to keep all of this going.
And then out comes the occasional home video and folks believe this abuse to be a rare thing. It's not.
As the short cellphone video illustrates, even the tone of these abusive police officers voices changed, and they leapt into an automatic and very obvious cover up for what was clearly an overkill police brutality,assault, not a restraint situation, which they continuously tried to loudly, verbally infer, even during the severest portion of the beating, they'd obligatorily yell for the benefit of those within earshot and eyesight "stop fighting stop fighting!" A statement which was beyond ludicrous, as the increasingly concussed and bloodied helpless man on the ground was not resisting at all - just bleeding,begging and moaning. They could see even in the midst of their hate fueled fervor, both the growing number of onlookers in the apartment building windows above the open street where one man was heard shouting "he ain't fighting!!!" and the newly arriving squad car all equaled possible trouble for them.
The saddest part of this whole story is the part about the little boy that lived in this neighborhood and witnesses this brutality from his home - from the take down to the beating, all the way to the pool of blood left on the street after the ambulance removed the beaten man, the little boy reportedly told his mother that he "no longer wanted to be a policeman when he grew up"
Those cops stole from that young man what every child is entitled to; an innocent and unsullied dream job or" career".
Some children in high risk areas such as the one where this police assault occurred, don't even bother mustering dreams - they either find it too difficult to imagine themselves rising to heights greater than where they are in that very moment or they are too angry or sad to allow themselves to dream for anything; This young boy did up until two New Haven Police officers showed him the ugliest side of what should be one of the most honorable and courageous careers in this country.
Lets pray for this boy and hope that he is counseled about what he saw, that he is somehow helped to understand and
reconcile what he witnessed and know that it is very very wrong and illegal.And although sadly we cannot tell him it is rare, that bad cops like these are the minority insofar as Police officers in general.
Perhaps he will be helped to understand that in this world although bad people exist even policmen with guns uniforms and badges, this means all have a responsibility to do our best to make sure that what he saw doesn't happen again.
Like the anonymous person who took this video and shed light on what otherwise might have been a dark ongoing secret, they showed they cared by filming it and showed courage by sharing it with the media. .Perhaps when he grows up, he too will have exceptional courage, and he will become that Policeman he had always wanted to be. And he will be one of the good ones, the brave the proud helping ensure that bad policemen, like the ones he saw hurt that man will become a thing of the past, something to be read about, like the holocaust, slavery and war.
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Death Penalty Challenged In Second Cheshire Home Invasion Case - Courant.com
These used car salesman in suits are really reaching.
Jul 6, 2011
Jurors' Thinking In Casey Anthony Trial Starts To Emerge : The Two-Way : NPR
I am so disgusted and disheartened by this obscene verdict for the murderer of two year old Caylee Anthony, that words almost fail even me. Except for a few choice ones.
Lookism.
Sexism.
Female Sociopath and a mother's despicable enabling of her her daughter- murderer of her own grandchild (ie Cindy Anthony's many 11th hour lies, especially the ones about looking up Chloroform on the family computer etc.)
A terrible Judge.
A terrible Jury with low intelligence, who allowed themselves to be blinded by all of the above.
A more thorough analysis later ( when the anger and the pain ebbs just a bit.)
Lookism.
Sexism.
Female Sociopath and a mother's despicable enabling of her her daughter- murderer of her own grandchild (ie Cindy Anthony's many 11th hour lies, especially the ones about looking up Chloroform on the family computer etc.)
A terrible Judge.
A terrible Jury with low intelligence, who allowed themselves to be blinded by all of the above.
A more thorough analysis later ( when the anger and the pain ebbs just a bit.)
Jul 3, 2011
Murder trial jurors can be overwhelmed, traumatized
A decent article from CNN regarding an important syndrome that I wrote about back in June(-check archives link on right) Its about a type of "second hand "trauma if you will, that both Jurors on violent crime/murder cases experience, as well as ordinary members of the community and society at large.
Anyone who has become privy to the details of a violent crime, be it murder, multiple murders, rapes and even bad assaults, are finally being recognized as subject to a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that can be almost as severe and life affecting as it is for a surviving victim, witness, family members, friends schoolmates neighbors or anyone at all that has become privy to even the most basic of details re the violence involved.
We tend to only think about these things when there are prominent murder cases that are splashed all over the mainstream media, such as the Petit murders, and the Caylee Anthony murder, both of which have garnered a great deal of media hype-although thankfully for the Petit's, which happened here in Connecticut, has not quite reached the insane media frenzy as the Casey case.
In September this will change a bit as the the mastermind of the Petit murders and rapes Joshua komisarjevsky, will finally be tried, nearly five years after the brutal burning murders of Hayley and Michaela Petit, the strangulation of mom Jennifer Petit and the baseball bat assault on lone survivor William Petit's head (komisarjevsky struck him admittedly 6-10 times in the head) This, after seeing the sole male of the house sleeping thru the sun porch window as he skulked the outsides of the property with Hayes---he broke in via a locked basement door, beckoning Hayes to wait outside until he let him in through a door,proceeded to stealthily climb the basement steps-he had checked out the basic layout of the home earlier that evening after following Michaela and her mother home from the Stop and Shop where he'd initially targeted the pair) And Joshua Komisarjevsky stood over the slumbering man at 3 am July 23rd 2007 and proceeded to bash him in the head quote "as hard as I could, as if chopping wood"
Steven Hayes, according to komisarjevsky, stood outside smiling, seemingly egging him on. For his part, Steven Hayes claimed he was quote shocked when he watched how vicious komisarjevskys baseball bat assault upon the sleeping mans head who did nothing whatsoever to resist and it appears that that assault set the tone for the rest of the crimes to come;
The truth regarding those few minutes will never be known, but what we do know is the assault upon Petit was beyond overkill and utterly unnecessary in order to simply render Dr Petit a non threat. The men toted a 9 mm lookalike gun which Petit and the girls all likely believed was real. It was in fact a pellet handgun designed to look ominous yet was far cheaper and easier to procure for the men-Hayes bought it at walmart that very evening at komisarjevskys request.
Like myself when assaulted with multiple blows to the head,, Dr Petit lost all sense of bearing, partial consciousness, suffered severe vertigo where the room seems to be spinning and severe nausea from his damaged brain and vestibular system-inner ears and balance portion of the brain.
He was in shock from brain trauma and bleeding which took place both within his brain and from the lacerations made by the repeated blows of a Louisville slugger that he'd grabbed from the petits basement. Petit who was on coumadin, a blood thinner to prevent strokes, should have by all accounts died.
The fact that as komisarjevsky opened the door to let Hayes in and then tied Dr Petit hands and feet with zip ties slipping on Petits blood in the process brings such a vivid image to my mind and heart as it certainly did for anyone reading or hearing about it....this is but a tiny parcel of the brutality that this man Joshua komisarjevsky not only planned but was responsible for heightening every step of the way throughout the evening of terror and carnage and he did for one reason; power and control over a sleeping vulnerable family that lived lives of modest goodness and indeed were healers and philanthropists and aspiring healers-Hayley was plann9ng on becoming a Doctor like her dad and was to attend Dartmouth in the fall.
Komisarjevsky is the second of two accomplices tried for the sexual assaults, murders, kidnappings and grand larceny, money that komisarjevsky wanted to bring his teenage girlfriend back from out of state where her parents had wisely moved her-away from the career felon who was just released on early parole having had his ankle bracelet removed 2 days before targeting Michael and Jennifer Petit while they shopped at an area supermarket. Komisarjevsky admitted to being attracted to the 11 year old Michael and used Mrs Petits blonde attractive appearance to guarantee the help of Steven Hayes a man who was the approximate age of Mrs Petit whereby komisarejsvky only 28 at the time had a long history of attraction to teenage girls.
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Forensic evidence entered during the Hayes trial proved that 17 year old Hayley Petit, who was not at the Stop and shop when komisarjevsky targeted Michaela and her mom ( added motivation for Hayes who shared komiarjevsky's fantasies of control rape and domination) Hayely was tied to her bed throughout the entire evening and morning hours of the crimes, she was also at least sexually molested during the ordeal by at least komisarjevsky, although he only confessed to "molesting": Michaela, close up cellphone photos of a nude, tied up and splayed Hayley Petit were found on komisarjevsky's cellphone among many others of 11 year old Michaela Petit dressed up in various outfits, including a schoolgirl plaid skirt and white collared shirt (typical pedophilia Fetishism and other photos he took depicting Michaela nude and in various stages of undress. These photos were mostly time stamped during the hours approx 7 am when Hayes is believed to have been sent by komisarjevsky to an out of town gas station to fill multiple containers from the Petit garage, with gasoline clearly preparing for the burning down of the Petit house in order to destroy DNA evidence of the rapes and murder by arson of all of the witnesses to thier barbaric rampage of crime.
Hayley's photos were time stamped at approximately 9 am, a time when police believe Hayes had just left for the Bank with Mrs Petit, again the sidekick doing the dirty work-he was caught on video cameras, while komisarjevsky ever the manipulative sociopath, basically ran amok, through the house, fully raping Michaela- forensics in the Hayes trial proved that despite komisarjevskys false claims of only ejaculating on Michaela as she lay tied up and naked on her bed, he had indeed sodomized the girl just minutes before dousing her in gasoline, pouring a trail to her sister Hayley, tied to her bed as well and down the steps to a now deceased via strangulation Mrs Petit, whom Hayes raped the very moment he stepped into the house with her back from her bank once both men tied her down including a noose around her neck as she screamed begging for her life. She had just fully complied with the men's request and withdrawn 15,000 dollars which shed handed over to Hayes as soon as she entered the car outside the bank.
I attended parts of the Steven Hayes trial; it was very difficult to get in due to limited media seats of 25 total in the New Haven Connecticut courthouse but I managed to attend 4 days of testimony and evidence along with all many members of the local and national media,the familys of the Petits and Hawkes etc, the Jurors, Judge, and a grouping of other attendees who all seemed very emotionally invested in this case - it hit home for thousands of people within this state alone.
We all listened to graphic descriptions of the many lewd photos on Mr Komisarjevsky's cellphone; photos of innocent little 11 year old Michaela tied up and raped amongst her stuffed animals, after having been quietly molested fondled and made to change into various outfits while this sleazeball snapped photos on his cellphone. This all took place while her mother lay tied in a separate room, I believe Jennifer Petit was not aware that this boyish looking young man)who was himself a native of Cheshire) was after her 11 year old, certainly I believe she dint know that he was molesting Michaela one floor above her where she herself was tied much of the night and morning hours waitng for the Bank to open.
It stands to reason from the statements of both men, pieces of komisarjevsky's interviews with Writer Brian Mcdonald who has since said that hed realized hed been totally duped by the soft spoken boyish looking young man hed corresponded with and met with in prison several times for purposes of writing a tell all book about "what really happened the night of the murders" After listening to the Hayes trial he realized that hed been used by a classic sociopathic manipulator whod been trying to basically feed a self serving version of the rapes and murders whereby naturally steven Hayes was responsible for all of the really bad stuff ie such as the capital crimes which are what will land komisarjevsky on Death row when the truth comes out.
In fact Mcdonald was quoted as saying that Komisarjevsky was the most manipulative person hed ever met and this was a guy who wrote true crime novels!
In any case as I said I believe that Jennifer Petit was unaware of komisarjevskys molestations of Michaela and certainly his obscene photo taking of her. I am certain that she was more worried about her 17 year old daughter Hayley, which in a normal male mind would be the obvious target of someone planning on sexual assault--not a pubescent child who was so innocent that she was actually sleeping with her mother when the men first creepy crawled up the stairs and with the fake gun in one of thier hands tied up Mrs Petit alone and led little michaela off to her own bedroom a floor above to be tied up sepearately.
No Josh Komisarjevsky B.S d Mrs Petit right offf the bat, indeed likely forming some kind of near stokhom type syndrome with the naive and notoriously kind Mrs Petit. Komisarjevsky later told macdonald he liked Jen Petit and said "I never should have talked with her, that was the mistake----implying that hed feel no remorse whatsoever had she not been so kind and willing to give him the money he wanted and told her he needed. No matter what this man said, I do not believe for a moment that he has a shred of guit or shame or conscience for in effect creating this evening of brutality, and murder and the lifetime of trauma that all of us are left with.
Komisarjevsky, the consumate sociopath, and decidedly the in-charge guy with this set of crimes, spent much time pacifying the innocent and kindhearted Jennifer Petit who I'm certain believed this young man who after all unlike his accomplice Hayes did not appear or sound menacing, he assured Mrs Petit over and over, that the men just wanted money, that her husband was unhurt and simply tied up in the cellar, where he could not interfere; he made certain to keep Hayes who was likely chomping at the bit from raping Mrs Petit..... until the last piece of the crime-the 15,0000 that (either Mrs Petit offered in exchange for her girls being left alone ie not raped- and safe and alive along with her husband.
Komisarjevsky knew that if he allowed Jennifer petit to see the blood pool on the sun porch where he had bashed her sleeping husbands head in, he'd probably never get her compliance as she would become fully aware of his potential for violence and would run the minute she got into that bank.
As well, if he went ahead and fully raped 11 year old Michaela whilst in earshot of Jennifer Petit, he would lose all credibility with her in the same fashion, instead he stealthily went about molesting Michaela with a pillowcase over the girls face for the most part (photos depicted this) He made certain Mrs Petit viewed him simply as a desperate for money, non violent thief, who just wanted jewelry valuable and money- and who would leave her home and family as promised, as soon as the bank opened and she accompanied his accomplice the older larger more imposing looking Steven Hayes, to withdraw the "goodwill" money.
These and other details such as the fact that Hayley managed to break Free of her binds several times and actually tried to call 911 on her cellphone before komisarjevsky had to call Hayes in the help him hold her down and tie her back up, the fact that Hayley's body was found face down burnt at the top of the family stairs, showing shed had gasoline poured so liberally upon her bed and clothing that her ties likely burnt from the heat and she ran aflame straight into the path of the poured gasoline fueled fire.
These these are what make this set of crimes that much more brutal and thus traumatic and heart breaking for anyone who hears even the scantest of details about it. And Joshua komisarjevskys actions and involvement in these crimes including but not limited to his planning and executing of the crimes apart from many other similar home invasion murders. He orchestrated via manipulation control and deceit the rapes and slaughter of three wonderful people-two children and one adult women who like her husband whom he also fully intended on burning to death in the fire, was a healer, a pediatric nurse who suffered from Multiple Sclerosis, yet amazingly still found the strength to become one of The Connecticut Chapter of MS's strongest, most devoted, avid fundraisers and event participants as were her daughters Hayley and Michaela.
Hearing the details of these crimes when they happened in July 2007s broke my heart. As I learned more I became more and more upset and utterly preoccupied with the fact that our Connecticut Parole board had atypically let both of these men out on early release parole despite histories amounting to over 55 felony convictions between them! Its bad enough when any violent crime happens, but when learning that this particularly horrific and cruel hours long kidnapping sexual assault and murder by burning to death, shouldn't have ever been allowed to happen had our state legislators judicial committee members and parole board-done their jobs-the Petit family would be alive and likely the happy productive and kind people that they were when alive.
Practically all of the state of Connecticut have been touched by these women's murders and by the losses suffered by Dr Petit (who no longer practices due to his head/brain injuries, as well as the grief and Post traumatic stress of losing his entire family in such an unbelievably cruel fashion)
And many many people outside of this state have written to the Petit's and their extended family's about how badly these crimes have tormented their thoughts and broken their hearts. I myself have imagined what each one of these girls went through on the morning of their torture and murders a thousand times over.
Just as things settled the littlest bit, we were all re-traumatized when Joshua komisarjevskys supposedly tell all paperback came out, with a self serving autobiographical version of the entire evening and morning events leading up to and culminating in the murders of Michaela Hayley and Jen Petit the arson of their home and the abduction of komisarjevsky and Hayes as they ran from the burning Petit house laughing according to police testimony jumping into one of the Petits family cars and running it straight into two police cruisers that had set up a road block after being called by the manager of the bank where Jennifer petit had managed to whisper to a teller that she needed the money for a ransom as her family was being held hostage and if the police were not called no one would get hurt"
This, like everything else promised to Jennifer Petit by Joshua komisarjevsky, was a purposeful lie, designed to garner her cooperation and hopefully ensure that she would be reluctant to run away at the bank or call police, as first of all she believed komisarjevsky's promise not to hurt anyone because shed not seen the violence hed committed upon her husband nor her daughters and her rape had not yet occurred.
As Hayes took her to the bank to withdraw the money, Komisarjevsky remained at home with her family tied up and with what she believed was a 9 mm handgun, which in actuality was the 9mm lookalike pellet gun that komisarjevsky had given Steven Hayes the money to buy the very day he'd spotted and followed home eleven Year old Michaela and her mom after theyd shopped for their Sunday dinner, a dinner which Michaela, an aspiring vegetarian chef cooked for her family for the very last time in her young innocent life.
Anyone who has become privy to the details of a violent crime, be it murder, multiple murders, rapes and even bad assaults, are finally being recognized as subject to a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that can be almost as severe and life affecting as it is for a surviving victim, witness, family members, friends schoolmates neighbors or anyone at all that has become privy to even the most basic of details re the violence involved.
We tend to only think about these things when there are prominent murder cases that are splashed all over the mainstream media, such as the Petit murders, and the Caylee Anthony murder, both of which have garnered a great deal of media hype-although thankfully for the Petit's, which happened here in Connecticut, has not quite reached the insane media frenzy as the Casey case.
In September this will change a bit as the the mastermind of the Petit murders and rapes Joshua komisarjevsky, will finally be tried, nearly five years after the brutal burning murders of Hayley and Michaela Petit, the strangulation of mom Jennifer Petit and the baseball bat assault on lone survivor William Petit's head (komisarjevsky struck him admittedly 6-10 times in the head) This, after seeing the sole male of the house sleeping thru the sun porch window as he skulked the outsides of the property with Hayes---he broke in via a locked basement door, beckoning Hayes to wait outside until he let him in through a door,proceeded to stealthily climb the basement steps-he had checked out the basic layout of the home earlier that evening after following Michaela and her mother home from the Stop and Shop where he'd initially targeted the pair) And Joshua Komisarjevsky stood over the slumbering man at 3 am July 23rd 2007 and proceeded to bash him in the head quote "as hard as I could, as if chopping wood"
Steven Hayes, according to komisarjevsky, stood outside smiling, seemingly egging him on. For his part, Steven Hayes claimed he was quote shocked when he watched how vicious komisarjevskys baseball bat assault upon the sleeping mans head who did nothing whatsoever to resist and it appears that that assault set the tone for the rest of the crimes to come;
The truth regarding those few minutes will never be known, but what we do know is the assault upon Petit was beyond overkill and utterly unnecessary in order to simply render Dr Petit a non threat. The men toted a 9 mm lookalike gun which Petit and the girls all likely believed was real. It was in fact a pellet handgun designed to look ominous yet was far cheaper and easier to procure for the men-Hayes bought it at walmart that very evening at komisarjevskys request.
Like myself when assaulted with multiple blows to the head,, Dr Petit lost all sense of bearing, partial consciousness, suffered severe vertigo where the room seems to be spinning and severe nausea from his damaged brain and vestibular system-inner ears and balance portion of the brain.
He was in shock from brain trauma and bleeding which took place both within his brain and from the lacerations made by the repeated blows of a Louisville slugger that he'd grabbed from the petits basement. Petit who was on coumadin, a blood thinner to prevent strokes, should have by all accounts died.
The fact that as komisarjevsky opened the door to let Hayes in and then tied Dr Petit hands and feet with zip ties slipping on Petits blood in the process brings such a vivid image to my mind and heart as it certainly did for anyone reading or hearing about it....this is but a tiny parcel of the brutality that this man Joshua komisarjevsky not only planned but was responsible for heightening every step of the way throughout the evening of terror and carnage and he did for one reason; power and control over a sleeping vulnerable family that lived lives of modest goodness and indeed were healers and philanthropists and aspiring healers-Hayley was plann9ng on becoming a Doctor like her dad and was to attend Dartmouth in the fall.
Komisarjevsky is the second of two accomplices tried for the sexual assaults, murders, kidnappings and grand larceny, money that komisarjevsky wanted to bring his teenage girlfriend back from out of state where her parents had wisely moved her-away from the career felon who was just released on early parole having had his ankle bracelet removed 2 days before targeting Michael and Jennifer Petit while they shopped at an area supermarket. Komisarjevsky admitted to being attracted to the 11 year old Michael and used Mrs Petits blonde attractive appearance to guarantee the help of Steven Hayes a man who was the approximate age of Mrs Petit whereby komisarejsvky only 28 at the time had a long history of attraction to teenage girls.
.
Forensic evidence entered during the Hayes trial proved that 17 year old Hayley Petit, who was not at the Stop and shop when komisarjevsky targeted Michaela and her mom ( added motivation for Hayes who shared komiarjevsky's fantasies of control rape and domination) Hayely was tied to her bed throughout the entire evening and morning hours of the crimes, she was also at least sexually molested during the ordeal by at least komisarjevsky, although he only confessed to "molesting": Michaela, close up cellphone photos of a nude, tied up and splayed Hayley Petit were found on komisarjevsky's cellphone among many others of 11 year old Michaela Petit dressed up in various outfits, including a schoolgirl plaid skirt and white collared shirt (typical pedophilia Fetishism and other photos he took depicting Michaela nude and in various stages of undress. These photos were mostly time stamped during the hours approx 7 am when Hayes is believed to have been sent by komisarjevsky to an out of town gas station to fill multiple containers from the Petit garage, with gasoline clearly preparing for the burning down of the Petit house in order to destroy DNA evidence of the rapes and murder by arson of all of the witnesses to thier barbaric rampage of crime.
Hayley's photos were time stamped at approximately 9 am, a time when police believe Hayes had just left for the Bank with Mrs Petit, again the sidekick doing the dirty work-he was caught on video cameras, while komisarjevsky ever the manipulative sociopath, basically ran amok, through the house, fully raping Michaela- forensics in the Hayes trial proved that despite komisarjevskys false claims of only ejaculating on Michaela as she lay tied up and naked on her bed, he had indeed sodomized the girl just minutes before dousing her in gasoline, pouring a trail to her sister Hayley, tied to her bed as well and down the steps to a now deceased via strangulation Mrs Petit, whom Hayes raped the very moment he stepped into the house with her back from her bank once both men tied her down including a noose around her neck as she screamed begging for her life. She had just fully complied with the men's request and withdrawn 15,000 dollars which shed handed over to Hayes as soon as she entered the car outside the bank.
I attended parts of the Steven Hayes trial; it was very difficult to get in due to limited media seats of 25 total in the New Haven Connecticut courthouse but I managed to attend 4 days of testimony and evidence along with all many members of the local and national media,the familys of the Petits and Hawkes etc, the Jurors, Judge, and a grouping of other attendees who all seemed very emotionally invested in this case - it hit home for thousands of people within this state alone.
We all listened to graphic descriptions of the many lewd photos on Mr Komisarjevsky's cellphone; photos of innocent little 11 year old Michaela tied up and raped amongst her stuffed animals, after having been quietly molested fondled and made to change into various outfits while this sleazeball snapped photos on his cellphone. This all took place while her mother lay tied in a separate room, I believe Jennifer Petit was not aware that this boyish looking young man)who was himself a native of Cheshire) was after her 11 year old, certainly I believe she dint know that he was molesting Michaela one floor above her where she herself was tied much of the night and morning hours waitng for the Bank to open.
It stands to reason from the statements of both men, pieces of komisarjevsky's interviews with Writer Brian Mcdonald who has since said that hed realized hed been totally duped by the soft spoken boyish looking young man hed corresponded with and met with in prison several times for purposes of writing a tell all book about "what really happened the night of the murders" After listening to the Hayes trial he realized that hed been used by a classic sociopathic manipulator whod been trying to basically feed a self serving version of the rapes and murders whereby naturally steven Hayes was responsible for all of the really bad stuff ie such as the capital crimes which are what will land komisarjevsky on Death row when the truth comes out.
In fact Mcdonald was quoted as saying that Komisarjevsky was the most manipulative person hed ever met and this was a guy who wrote true crime novels!
In any case as I said I believe that Jennifer Petit was unaware of komisarjevskys molestations of Michaela and certainly his obscene photo taking of her. I am certain that she was more worried about her 17 year old daughter Hayley, which in a normal male mind would be the obvious target of someone planning on sexual assault--not a pubescent child who was so innocent that she was actually sleeping with her mother when the men first creepy crawled up the stairs and with the fake gun in one of thier hands tied up Mrs Petit alone and led little michaela off to her own bedroom a floor above to be tied up sepearately.
No Josh Komisarjevsky B.S d Mrs Petit right offf the bat, indeed likely forming some kind of near stokhom type syndrome with the naive and notoriously kind Mrs Petit. Komisarjevsky later told macdonald he liked Jen Petit and said "I never should have talked with her, that was the mistake----implying that hed feel no remorse whatsoever had she not been so kind and willing to give him the money he wanted and told her he needed. No matter what this man said, I do not believe for a moment that he has a shred of guit or shame or conscience for in effect creating this evening of brutality, and murder and the lifetime of trauma that all of us are left with.
Komisarjevsky, the consumate sociopath, and decidedly the in-charge guy with this set of crimes, spent much time pacifying the innocent and kindhearted Jennifer Petit who I'm certain believed this young man who after all unlike his accomplice Hayes did not appear or sound menacing, he assured Mrs Petit over and over, that the men just wanted money, that her husband was unhurt and simply tied up in the cellar, where he could not interfere; he made certain to keep Hayes who was likely chomping at the bit from raping Mrs Petit..... until the last piece of the crime-the 15,0000 that (either Mrs Petit offered in exchange for her girls being left alone ie not raped- and safe and alive along with her husband.
Komisarjevsky knew that if he allowed Jennifer petit to see the blood pool on the sun porch where he had bashed her sleeping husbands head in, he'd probably never get her compliance as she would become fully aware of his potential for violence and would run the minute she got into that bank.
As well, if he went ahead and fully raped 11 year old Michaela whilst in earshot of Jennifer Petit, he would lose all credibility with her in the same fashion, instead he stealthily went about molesting Michaela with a pillowcase over the girls face for the most part (photos depicted this) He made certain Mrs Petit viewed him simply as a desperate for money, non violent thief, who just wanted jewelry valuable and money- and who would leave her home and family as promised, as soon as the bank opened and she accompanied his accomplice the older larger more imposing looking Steven Hayes, to withdraw the "goodwill" money.
These and other details such as the fact that Hayley managed to break Free of her binds several times and actually tried to call 911 on her cellphone before komisarjevsky had to call Hayes in the help him hold her down and tie her back up, the fact that Hayley's body was found face down burnt at the top of the family stairs, showing shed had gasoline poured so liberally upon her bed and clothing that her ties likely burnt from the heat and she ran aflame straight into the path of the poured gasoline fueled fire.
These these are what make this set of crimes that much more brutal and thus traumatic and heart breaking for anyone who hears even the scantest of details about it. And Joshua komisarjevskys actions and involvement in these crimes including but not limited to his planning and executing of the crimes apart from many other similar home invasion murders. He orchestrated via manipulation control and deceit the rapes and slaughter of three wonderful people-two children and one adult women who like her husband whom he also fully intended on burning to death in the fire, was a healer, a pediatric nurse who suffered from Multiple Sclerosis, yet amazingly still found the strength to become one of The Connecticut Chapter of MS's strongest, most devoted, avid fundraisers and event participants as were her daughters Hayley and Michaela.
Hearing the details of these crimes when they happened in July 2007s broke my heart. As I learned more I became more and more upset and utterly preoccupied with the fact that our Connecticut Parole board had atypically let both of these men out on early release parole despite histories amounting to over 55 felony convictions between them! Its bad enough when any violent crime happens, but when learning that this particularly horrific and cruel hours long kidnapping sexual assault and murder by burning to death, shouldn't have ever been allowed to happen had our state legislators judicial committee members and parole board-done their jobs-the Petit family would be alive and likely the happy productive and kind people that they were when alive.
Practically all of the state of Connecticut have been touched by these women's murders and by the losses suffered by Dr Petit (who no longer practices due to his head/brain injuries, as well as the grief and Post traumatic stress of losing his entire family in such an unbelievably cruel fashion)
And many many people outside of this state have written to the Petit's and their extended family's about how badly these crimes have tormented their thoughts and broken their hearts. I myself have imagined what each one of these girls went through on the morning of their torture and murders a thousand times over.
Just as things settled the littlest bit, we were all re-traumatized when Joshua komisarjevskys supposedly tell all paperback came out, with a self serving autobiographical version of the entire evening and morning events leading up to and culminating in the murders of Michaela Hayley and Jen Petit the arson of their home and the abduction of komisarjevsky and Hayes as they ran from the burning Petit house laughing according to police testimony jumping into one of the Petits family cars and running it straight into two police cruisers that had set up a road block after being called by the manager of the bank where Jennifer petit had managed to whisper to a teller that she needed the money for a ransom as her family was being held hostage and if the police were not called no one would get hurt"
This, like everything else promised to Jennifer Petit by Joshua komisarjevsky, was a purposeful lie, designed to garner her cooperation and hopefully ensure that she would be reluctant to run away at the bank or call police, as first of all she believed komisarjevsky's promise not to hurt anyone because shed not seen the violence hed committed upon her husband nor her daughters and her rape had not yet occurred.
As Hayes took her to the bank to withdraw the money, Komisarjevsky remained at home with her family tied up and with what she believed was a 9 mm handgun, which in actuality was the 9mm lookalike pellet gun that komisarjevsky had given Steven Hayes the money to buy the very day he'd spotted and followed home eleven Year old Michaela and her mom after theyd shopped for their Sunday dinner, a dinner which Michaela, an aspiring vegetarian chef cooked for her family for the very last time in her young innocent life.
Jun 30, 2011
Casey Anthony's defense expected to rest case
My prayer for Caylee:
May this despicable shameless media frenzy surrounding this beautiful two year old child''s murder end with haste..
Let these jury members see the truth, as it is so very clear - to me and millions of others across the globe.
There is no "mystery"
Casey Anthony, acting alone, murdered, with pre-meditated aforethought and malice, her own innocent child. Her motivation, while is not necessary in determining that she is in fact guilty as hell, in my opinion was all about
a) Casey Anthony obtaining freedom from motherhood becoming unencumbered by the responsibilities and constraints of a small child, heightened by the fact that her life revolved around such free wheeling behaviors as bar hopping, bed hopping, and other vapid and selfish pursuits.
I believe that Casey Anthony is one of the more sinister and manipulative sociopaths that I have encountered throughout my years studying criminals that kill and or maim - and Ive seen a bunch.
Female sociopaths are not all too common, and when they do crop up within our society, generally speaking they do not typically kill, although their manipulations deceptions and tendency to break laws and run roughshod over the rights of others, can be extremely destructive. But while they may not kill as frequently as their sociopath male counterparts, when they do-they often get lighter sentences, or even wind up in mental facilities rather than the prisons that they clearly belong in.
Part of this may be our societal tendency, as is illustrated well by the judge presiding over the case refusing to emotionally compute the notion of a somewhat attractive and diminutive, young woman from a respectable middle class upbringing, killing someone, much less her own child.
Tragically, this is a classic mistake that like so many, others in our society, erroneously believe; our courts systems, including otherwise intelligent judges attorneys sheriffs, prison guards you name it and an attractive young woman need only be a halfway decent sociopath, and seductress and she's going to receive special treatment both in and out of prison as well often will not receive the same verdict or sentences as a male who is accused of the same crimes with the very same facts within that case.
Our society seems to insist upon learning about violent crime and look ism, the hard way (remember Ted Bondy and or Karla Homolka ( ie of the infamous Ken and Barbie rapist and murdering married tag team from Canada during the 90's?)
Tragically, this societal and judicial ignorance always, always, costs the innocent their lives. and the victims of crime their 'justice..
From early on in this case I noticed a distinctive red flag; an unnatural sibling-like rivalry that Casey Anthony seemed to have with her own child regarding her parents natural concern and deep love for their granddaughter little Caylee. Their love was within normal parameters, there was nothing sinister about it nor suspect, I say this lest anyone out there reflexively thinks that Casey's jealousy of her own child was based in reality.
As a woman with a personality disorder Casey clearly resented the fact that her parents doted on her very own child, and saw this as competition and resented it. She wanted to be the eternal child. Rather than see Caylee as an extension of herself and thus, her parents love and concern when Caylee"went missing" ,
which was a healthy and indeed in this case they were so steeped in denial about Casey that it took the elder Anthony's who had divisiveness between themselves also, too long in my opinion to finally put their foot down and say ok where the hell is this child -- we are calling the Police in NOW.(It took a month of vague lies about non existent nanny's and then Casey's car smelling of a dead body before they finally were jointly willing to officially involve the authorities.
However, as an obvious narcissist and sociopath Casey Anthony saw her own daughter, as competition for her parents love and attention, as well equally seeing poor little Caylee as an object, a plaything, that she was tied of now jealous of and was getting more and more" in her way" Caylee impeded Caseys lifestyle and the things that she wished to do when She wanted to do them; this does not go over well with a double narcissist/sociopath, never mind that she had Caylee at such a young age and was for all intents and purposes and single mother. Add to the mix, an pre-existing resentment for her parents because they were authority figures, whom Casey viewed as the ever critical enemy also constantly in her way"....the rest is very easy to figure out.
Casey had a lot of friction-with her parents that was clear, as was the fact that it was 99% of her own making as is the case with teens who have "oppositional-defiant disorder" which usually evolves into full blown anti-social personality disorder or Sociopath/psychopath as most people know it. There are a handful of personality disorders such as narcissistic PD, borderline PD, AVOIDANCE PD etc. What they all have in common is a disregard for other peoples rights boundaries and a disdain for rules and authority-be it parental, school, in the work environment, Police and other federal or state agencies etc. Most feel that THEY are different and that rules are for shmucks- if you'll pardon the language.
. To see a perfect example of Caseys jeolosyand resentment of Caylee who was dead at that point remember just watch the infamous jailhouse phone conversations between Casey and her mom shortly after Casey's arrest, look listen closely. I believe that this jealousy largely perpetuated Casey's idea and thoughts of killing her child. Between this sick rivalry, which for a mature woman,would seem absurd, but for a
young emotionally stunted sociopath, it wasthe perfect recipe for murdering one'schild -this combined with
a desire to return to her previously held free-wheeling, partying lifestyle, a lifestyle that involved spending evenings with whatever young man of the moment, culminated in her premeditatively killing her darling 2 year old.
The text messages that this presiding Judge wrongly disallowed from being entered into evidence, clearly showed this part of Casey Anthony's mindset and motivation to kill Cay lee, just prior to the murder, They spoke volumes to that motivation; She wrote in her text to her then beau " in just another couple of days baby you can bring your ass over here any frigging night you feel like it!"
Now for some ridiculous reason that was certainly not based upon common sense fairness or proper judicial/ criminal precedents, this judge,who in my humble opinion is not a very good judge
(he is very inconsistent
far too detached and presumptive and this particular decision that he made regarding the dis-allowance of these extremely pertinent texts to be entered into evidence, ie shown to the jury-whom he ordered out of the courtroom while they were read out loud in front of the lawyers and families was a major mistake that cost the prosecution and the rest of the law abiding world-the truth-and justice for Caylee.
.And by way of explanation for disallowing the incriminating texts to be seen or heard by the jury-This Judge claimed the texts were prejudicial and made no sense anyway". He then elaborated saying"I mean,whats she going to do- kill her parents too?! This was rhetorical, The Judge did not want nor expect an answer.
But if I was that prosecutor I would have given him a very pointed answer; and yet for whatever idiotic reason the prosecutor didn't say a word and let the entire thing go.
This shows his incompetence. My best guess is he figured the judge was stubborn he wasn't going to get anywhere likely and made the mistaken decision that he probably didn't need the texts to win the case against Casey Anthony. Plain stupid. You always always argue a point when you know you are right, your deadvictims right to justice is at stake.
Now when the judge said whats she gonna do kill her parents to" he did so in a mocking tone, which I immediately recall thinking Does he not know a thing about forensic psychiatry?
Or is he like so many other men-and a fair number of women in this country-fooled by Casey Anthony's age and fresh scrubbed appearance, rendering the mere idea that this petite young woman-a girl almost , primly
sitting, in a crisp white shirt, on a subconscious level....had the Judge fallen prey to"Caseyitis" It sure was beginning to look that way as I watched the judges decision and his"reasoning" in making it.
Here is a young mother accused of killing her 2 year old child and throwing her in the trunk of her car where she was left for days in the heat to rot while Casey lived her typical daily life without a sign of even discomfiture or moodiness.
The days following Caylees murder were filled with video watching, dancing clubbing,drinking having sex with the moment boyfriend (note; I am reluctant to bring up a women' sex life within the confines of a criminal case however in this instance it relate to Caseys state of mind following the murder in this case,thus rendering it extremely pertinent to the case.
the "accidental drowning story" where Casey tried to throw her father under the bus by claiming
out of nowhere that he disposed of Kaylee's little body how on earth could she be so emotionally disconnected as to behave as countless witnesses have testified she did, in the days and weeks that followed this supposed accidental death of her child?!
Shopping, Getting Tattoo's, chirping away and texting on her cellphone with friends, all whilst simultaneously fending off her parents growing concern and demands for answers re Caylee's
whereabouts.
Do the math Judge. the texts make perfect sense -we are not dealing with a nice young gal that is built like you and I -in her soulless frame lies the heart of a manipulating sociopath;
Thus to disallow key evidence that points directly to motive, text messages clearly showing said motive for the murder of her child a la Susan Smith style, you don't send the Jury out,call a sidebar and state that you are not going to allow such important evidence in because either
a)
you have no training in forensic psychology
or
b) because they make no sense and yet are highly prejudicial-
which is it Judge?
ie "was she gonna kill her parents too?! The Judge asked the prosecutor after sending the jury out.
Too clarify:
At the time Casey and Caylee lived at the elder Anthony's home, as Casey didn't work and in fact had lied for months at a stretch,telling her parents that she was working at a job, only for them to discover she wasn't and as was typical for her she was lying, trying to keep them off her back so to speak
an attempt to fulfill their demands that she work if she lives at home, as well as any parents of a young adult who wants to show their adult child that one must pay their way even when their parents have graciously allowed that adult child-and her child to live with them, including intermittent free baby sitting by the Anthony's.
Yes-YES-YES! It is completely within the realm of possibility that Casey Anthony might kill
her parents,or one of them,whichever she thought might be in her way the most or even worse
turn her in. You better believe that anyone that would kill a beautiful 2 year old child and then behave so disconnectedly and lie with such connivance,showing utter disdain for her crying mother who was literally begging (on the prison phone) for any little thing that Casey might be able to remember about (upposedly missing at that point )cayle via her imaginary nanny, a lie that reciting to her mom alone seemed to irritate Casey-as if she resented having to "explain herself" yet again to her mother or anyone else....and why they hell dont you people care about me I'm in Jail!
Casey was barely able to sound convincing whilst sounding utterly disgusted and bored when finally suggesting to her mother"I don't know mom Ive told you everything already! Look up her family I think they lived in the Dominican republic or something" She threw this half hearted bone at her clearly distraught and broken up mother who was there visiting her daughter in prison, where she sat on charges of murdering her own child.
All we heard and saw from Casey Anthony, who remember now-in retrospect-is claiming at that point her daughter had long been dead-drowned in the family pool her little body disposed of conveniently by George Anthony, she suddenly says and yet what we saw and heard was a Casey Anthony responding to her mothers pitiable beseeching re Caylee's possible whereabouts, with utter disdain.
Disdain sulkiness,resentment and bitterness - and even boredom.
If you watch and listen to those tapes carefully, you'll see that Casey herself was so clearly sick and tired of being asked about Caylee -by her parents especially. It was bad enough she had to deal with the police and the lawyers, but she was not going to deal with her parents bugging her about this kid anymore.
Let this Jury see and feel the truth of Casey Anthony's evil and deception. Let them understand that Cindy Anthony has become caught up in a Stockholm like syndrome where she is now aiding and abetting her daughter desperately trying anything to keep her off of death row. She now claims that she searched the term chloroform"?!!!!! She insisted that little Caylee could climb up to the pool herself and proffered photos depicting herself propping little caylee up with her hands at her little back as the toddler climbed the steps gingerly. I think we all can see whats happened here with Mrs Anthony. Her daughter has bamboozled her made up some lies about her father molesting her, stirred up media interest in her dads female friend trying to imply infidelity in order to hurt her fathers credibility. And the tension between Mr and Mrs Anthony can be seen from a mile away.
As is classic with sociopaths within a family dynamic they are experts at causing divisiveness all the better to divide and conquer. From where I stand it is clear that Mrs Anthony has put herself i a thick state of denial re her daughter murdering Caylee. Shed much rather believe that Caylee drowned by accident and even if she doesnt really believe this, after listening to her lie under oath and claim that it was her that searched for chloroform on the computer I knew that Mrs Anthony had crossed over for wahtever personal demons she has to answer to. Its just too bad that she is wiling to aid and abet a child killer as well as throw her own husband under the bus in the process.
But before we judge her too harshly remeber this, Socioapths are extremely adept liars and manipulators, the stories" about George anthony supposedly trying to molest Casey as well as Caseys brother, both of whom happen to obviously believe and know that Cseys is guilty of killing Caylee , these storiues were told at a very purposeful moment by Casey Anthony-she needed at least one parent on her side, so she worked out a scheme to solicit her mothers instinct to protect her own, she guilted her and she through the molestation bit in for good measure insuring that Mrs Anthony would begin to wonder....is it possible...oh my god maybe thats why Cassey is so messed up!"
In the meantime a little girl desrves justice for her brutally stolen life.
Jun 27, 2011
Jun 26, 2011
Jun 20, 2011
Serving as a juror can be stressful, traumatic
It's about time the media focused upon the experience of being a Juror in a violent crime case especially involving murder.
The Groene case involving the murder of Dyan Slade Brenda and the kidnapping and assault of 8 year old Shasta, is forever embedded in my mind and my soul, I can only imagine what the Jurors in Dylan's murder case went through. They were forced to watch video that Joshpeh Dunan took of his sexual assaults upon Dylan, as well a taped episode where he nearly killed the boy by hanging him into unconsciousness by a wire whilst mastutbating singing and mocking the lords prayer.
For years, no one gave the Jurors post traumatic stress a thought, certainly no practical considerations. IE such as offerring in depth counseling and psychiatric assistance before and after the trial re. what they experienced and bore witness to, within the confines of thier service and "Duty" to their country. Kind of reminds me of how we treated and still in many cases treat our veterans; use them up and tosss em aside until the government gets a fresh batch.
Slowly, the states are coming around but again too slowly much too slowly. Peoples entire lives change after serving on a jury such as the Anthony trial or the petit family murder trials. Their sense of safety in this world is gone, theyve gained a new insight to the dark and avil side of humanity that they a;; wish theyd never been made privy too. Yet they have.
In the meantime, lets talk about it, lets write to our legislators about this important issue. The more awareness we can bring to the second and third hand trauma caused by various violent crimes, which needn't be in our community for us to feel the overwhelming pain grief and terror that the victim(s) suffered, and in this, take on a piece of it ourselves. It';s part of being a compassionate human being with empathy, and as much as the media has trampled on this notion through their incessant insistence of sensationalising even a childs murder for ratings and monetary gain - well we the good people of this world need to do something about this as well.
Remember...
"Evil exists when GOOD men do NOTHING."
A quote and a philosophy by Voltaire that shows us that apathy and "not wanting to "get involved" is worse than committing a heinous act - for you the good man or woman, knows better and within that knowledge is a responsibility to stop insulating your lives from anything and everything unpleasant, its avoidance and denial that make the ideal climate for a predator.
The Groene case involving the murder of Dyan Slade Brenda and the kidnapping and assault of 8 year old Shasta, is forever embedded in my mind and my soul, I can only imagine what the Jurors in Dylan's murder case went through. They were forced to watch video that Joshpeh Dunan took of his sexual assaults upon Dylan, as well a taped episode where he nearly killed the boy by hanging him into unconsciousness by a wire whilst mastutbating singing and mocking the lords prayer.
For years, no one gave the Jurors post traumatic stress a thought, certainly no practical considerations. IE such as offerring in depth counseling and psychiatric assistance before and after the trial re. what they experienced and bore witness to, within the confines of thier service and "Duty" to their country. Kind of reminds me of how we treated and still in many cases treat our veterans; use them up and tosss em aside until the government gets a fresh batch.
Slowly, the states are coming around but again too slowly much too slowly. Peoples entire lives change after serving on a jury such as the Anthony trial or the petit family murder trials. Their sense of safety in this world is gone, theyve gained a new insight to the dark and avil side of humanity that they a;; wish theyd never been made privy too. Yet they have.
In the meantime, lets talk about it, lets write to our legislators about this important issue. The more awareness we can bring to the second and third hand trauma caused by various violent crimes, which needn't be in our community for us to feel the overwhelming pain grief and terror that the victim(s) suffered, and in this, take on a piece of it ourselves. It';s part of being a compassionate human being with empathy, and as much as the media has trampled on this notion through their incessant insistence of sensationalising even a childs murder for ratings and monetary gain - well we the good people of this world need to do something about this as well.
Remember...
"Evil exists when GOOD men do NOTHING."
A quote and a philosophy by Voltaire that shows us that apathy and "not wanting to "get involved" is worse than committing a heinous act - for you the good man or woman, knows better and within that knowledge is a responsibility to stop insulating your lives from anything and everything unpleasant, its avoidance and denial that make the ideal climate for a predator.
Jun 15, 2011
Prosecution finishes case in Casey Anthony trial
Update re the case of The State of Florida vs Casey Anthony for the murder of two year old Caylee Anthony, in a word;
The prosecution has rested it's case, the judge has rejected the defense's motion to acquit after making a relatively short Judicial soliliquoy in his by now trademark slow, deliberate speaking manner. The defense begins it's side of the case Thursday morning, and the jury has been given the standard instructions regarding not discussing the case, et al.
The prosecution has rested it's case, the judge has rejected the defense's motion to acquit after making a relatively short Judicial soliliquoy in his by now trademark slow, deliberate speaking manner. The defense begins it's side of the case Thursday morning, and the jury has been given the standard instructions regarding not discussing the case, et al.
Jun 14, 2011
Jury set for Komisarjevsky trial |
The last four alternates have been picked and the testimony is scheduled to begin September 19th.
We can be assured that Bansley and Donovan Komisarjevsky's laeyers will pull some stunt in the form of another motion to attempt to push that date up, just as they did with the advent of jury selection--managing to stall the onset of that process by well over 2 months.
We can be assured that Bansley and Donovan Komisarjevsky's laeyers will pull some stunt in the form of another motion to attempt to push that date up, just as they did with the advent of jury selection--managing to stall the onset of that process by well over 2 months.
Jun 13, 2011
"The Modern Elite Ruling Class Notion of Justice"
This article is a must read.
I am so impressed that I am posting the entire article as well as a link to the original, lest the contents become lost down the line via the hyperlink. I wasn't aware when I first began blogging that oft - times, many hyper-links to time - sensitive articles, especially within mainstream online publications become useless, "broken" leading the now piqued, unsuspecting reader to a cyber dead - end of sorts. This an average of 6 months to a year from the initial publication of the article being linked
As I became a more seasoned blogger, I discovered that clicking on hyper-link, including my own, within an older article, invariably brought me to a page that was marked "were sorry but that article is no longer available. Thanfully, not every online magazine or newspaper handles their dated articles this way and these are no surprise, the usually better publications, where one will find a message similar to that article has been archived, you may use our advanced search system to locate the article that you wish to read/.
Today, I am compelled to copy and paste a rather long article, of great substance; it's one of those rare articles that has the power to change things.
I'm putting up the very last paragraph of the article first. I felt that the words below perfectly embodied the same passion and motivation that drive my own dogged pursuit of the good fight for Justice, a perpetual fight fought mostly via the power of the formidable pen, the words below summed up beautifully what we, as a people can do, must do, in order to invoke the changes that need to take place to better insure the safety of our loved ones and ourselves, politics be damned.
I once believed myself a Democrat. As I grew older and became more of who I was meant to be, I discovered that the most essential issues facing our legislators and politicians should be non partisan; Public safety;, violent crime, child abduction, terrorism of the domestic kind, broken bones, sexual assault and brutality.
And behind it, the engine that drives it, never mind allows it, it keeps it all running; apathy and greed.
It is our unwavering right as human beings to procure sanctity for ourselves and eachother, from maiming and death at the hands of others, often who have often been in and out of our" correctional facilities' their whole lives.
The article begins in Italics below.
"CONCLUSION: Surrender or Fight?
What can be done about a travesty of justice system declared “impossible to defend” by a state chief justice?
Gail Canzano and Marilyn Flax, quoted at the outset, make clear the choice: Repeal the law or enforce the law. Indefensibly surrender to the indefensible or fight to make the system defensible.
Surrender is especially unjustified because, with great consistency for a very long time, capital punishment has had overwhelming public support, notwithstanding that very many have bought the repeatedly refuted claim that innocents are executed. The only choice is to fight – to fight those fanatically devoted to brutal murderers and unconcerned about victims.
The first step in that fight is to inform the public of the intolerable abuses shown here. The media have egregiously failed. Rectifying that failure is the purpose of this article.
By Lester Jackson, Ph.D., Guest Contributor
“[T]he death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Not for those on death row but for the families of their victims”
—— Report on Connecticut Families’ Call for Death Penalty Repeal
“What I would like … is not [repeal] the law, but enforce the law.”
—— Marilyn Flax (57), widow of murder victim
“It’s difficult if not impossible to defend 29 years for a case to be in the courts.”
—— former Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Lambert
____________________
INTRODUCTION
Days apart in early February, two Connecticut events dramatically highlighted how power-abusing elitists have sabotaged the death penalty. First, in the second protracted Petit robbery-rape-arson-murder case, defense attorneys fired a fusillade of motions to spare the life of a client they proclaimed so dangerous that the “public interest” required him to “never again spend a day in free society (4).” Second, a group of murder victim family members called for death penalty abolition, complaining it inflicted greater suffering on them than murderers. Dr. Gail Canzano asserted: “The death penalty ensnares people in the criminal justice system… result[ing] in … years of suffering … for the families left behind. … [E]very single court appearance re-traumatizes the family….”
This was further vindication of the ruthless strategy of so-called death penalty opponents: protecting barbaric murderers by abusing the legal system to drag out, for decades, cases in which there is no doubt about guilt, torturing victims in the process.
That it was not always this way shows that it does not have to be this way now.
OLD JUSTICE
■President William McKinley died on Sept. 14, 1901, eight days after being shot by Leon Czolgosz, who was caught in the act and confessed. On Sept. 23, Czolgosz went on trial and was sentenced to death three days later. He was executed on Oct. 29, 53 days after the crime and 47 after the president’s death.
■Unable to get near his first choice (75), President Herbert Hoover, Giuseppe Zangara settled on President-elect Franklin Roosevelt. On Feb. 15, 1933, Zangara’s errant shot hit Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who died on March 6. Caught in the act and having confessed, Zangara was executed on March 20, 1933 after 10 days on death row and 14 days after his victim died.
■On July 2, 1881, Charles Guiteau shot President James Garfield, who died on Sept. 19. Immediately caught, Guiteau boasted of his deed. He was placed on trial for murder on Nov. 14 and found guilty on Jan. 25, 1882. After an appeal rejected May 22 and a denied request for an orchestra to play at his hanging, Guiteau was executed on June 30, 1882, nine months after his victim died.
■William Kemmler murdered his wife on March 29, 1889 and was sentenced to death 45 days later, May 13. He appealed the new execution method, electrocution, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court May 23, 1890. Even with the aid of high-priced lawyers hired by George Westinghouse, his execution occurred August 6, 1890, 15 months after the murder.
■On March 20, 1927, Ruth Snyder, aided by paramour Henry Gray, strangled and bludgeoned her husband to death to collect insurance. In fewer than 10 months, January 12, 1928, they were both executed.
There was never any doubt whatsoever about the guilt in these cases. Justice was done – swiftly. This is now inconceivable, both in unpublicized and high-profile cases. In today’s murderer-friendly, victim-hostile judicial and legislative environment, incontrovertibly and boastfully guilty assassins and other murderers spend years, even decades, on death row – if sentenced to death at all. Consider the following few of limitless examples.
MODERN JUSTICE
■On Nov. 5, 2009, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan shot 45 mostly military people, killing 13 and wounding 32. After 17 months, it remained uncertain whether Hasan would face capital charges or even be court-martialed. Although apprehended in the act of murdering, he is, in today’s argot, still merely an “accused” murderer.
■On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City, murdering 168 innocent people. He boasted of his guilt. Nevertheless, he was not executed until June 2001. Had he not dropped his appeals, there is no telling how many more years would have elapsed; indeed, he might still be alive after 16 years, which is routine nowadays.
■On parole from a sentence for beating a neighbor to death, Robert Alton Harris kidnapped and murdered two boys, one “crouching and screaming,” and “giggled …, saying he had blown … Baker’s arm off. [He] amused himself by imagining be[ing] a police officer … report[ing] the boys’ deaths to their families. … [He] laughed, commented he had really blown the boy’s brains out, and then flicked the bits of flesh into the street.” Executed after “only” 14 years, the New York Times bitterly attacked the Supreme Court’s “Rush to Kill.”
■John Jacob Dougan made several tape recordings bragging about the 1974 murder of an 18-year-old boy, which were mailed to the victim’s mother as well as to the media: “He was stabbed in the back, in the chest and the stomach, ah, it was beautiful. You should have seen it. Ah, I enjoyed every minute of it. I loved watching the blood gush from his eyes.” 37 years later, Dougan remains on death row.
■Spared a death sentence for murder, this mercy enabled Clarence Ray Allen to communicate with and order associates outside prison to murder witnesses against him. It took another 26 years to execute him.
No ground for delay is too preposterous in today’s courts. So shameless are death penalty opponents that, after being kept alive to have a second bite at the murder apple that cost three more innocent lives, Allen’s lawyers actually argued (n362) he should not be executed because just thinking about the prospect might cause him to have a heart attack. In this vein, two justices have taken seriously the abolitionist demand that any murderer who succeeds in gaming the system for decades should be rewarded for the delay he himself has caused – by voiding his death sentence because execution would be cruel and unusual punishment after so long. In other words, grant mercy to the parent killer on the ground that he is an orphan.
In 1882, Guiteau got nowhere with his demand for an orchestra to accompany his permitted pre-hanging reading of his poetry, which he insisted would be “very effective” with music. Today, when judges take seriously the claim that a brutal murderer should be spared execution because he won a dance contest or would not be a threat in prison because he “only preyed on elderly women,” Guiteau’s demand, alone, would likely be good for a delay of a year or two.
Equally absurd but far more serious is the routine argument that a murderer never intended that anyone be murdered, even when he showed up with a loaded gun and a lethal knife, planned an armed robbery, stabbed his rape victim 53 times (93-4) or smuggled a chest filled with guns into a prison to help two convicted murderers escape. In the Petit case, lawyers argue Joshua Komisarjevsky never intended (3) for anyone to be murdered, but they fail to explain why, if this is so, he deserves an actual life sentence in “the public interest.” (There is evidence, from his own cell phone, that he was an active, willing participant. His partner probably could not have committed the crimes alone, nor even tried.)
Such absurdities help explain why the point has been reached where Virginia is held up as a veritable death penalty paradise (8) by some capital punishment supporters because it can execute the clearly guilty in an average of “only” seven years; and why former Kentucky Chief Justice Lambert conceded that it is “difficult if not impossible” to defend multi-decade cases. But given judicial obtuseness regarding victims, it is, first, vital to stress that these cases further victimize the law-abiding in the name of purported “due process” for the most brutal lawless.
VICTIMIZING VICTIM FAMILIES
Murder victimizes survivors in two ways: (1) the loss and pain of family members and others who care about the homicide victim; and (2) the agony inflicted by the modern travesty of justice system.
To lay persons, this may seem too obvious to mention. But not to many judges. The idea that, on behalf of convicted murderers, the courts cruelly punish murder victim families flies in the face of the denial they are victims at all. In a virtually unreported but highly revealing statement, Justice Stevens calls it a “misnomer” to label as “victims” the family members and others who love and care about murder victims because they are merely “third parties.” Really?! Consider these few examples:
■David Brewer raped, strangled and stabbed Sherry Byrne 15 times; he slit her throat. This “ruined the lives of everyone close to her.” Her mother was hospitalized and divorced; her husband, who “wanted to die,” was twice hospitalized for psychiatric care.
■One mother stated: “When Shannon died, we died.”
■Dr. William Petit considered suicide because he lost: “a wife and two wonderful daughters, where you’re defined by your family. … children are the jewels … all your hopes for the future are in your children… Your wife is your partner, your team-mate … you lose it all.’
■It is unlikely that Stevens will descend from his ivory tower to face Diana Harrington, who flatly declared (368-75) herself “a victim” of the brutal murders of her sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew.
Also, Stevens finds it “troubling” (7) to “rouse jurors’ sympathy for the victims and increase jurors’ antipathy for the capital defendants.” Indeed, if some justices (once a majority) had their way, victims’ families would have the courthouse doors slammed in their faces.
Solicitude for murderers and callous unconcern for victims go a long way toward explaining why judges have no qualms inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on the latter.
Justice Ginsburg suffers stress and cries; and Justice Blackmun found executing barbaric criminals “particularly excruciating” (153). Yet one can search in vain for similar expressions by them about victims. Hence, on behalf of those whose guilt is uncontested, these justices often have compounded geometrically the anguish of losing loved ones. That is why family members have said it is they who endure cruel and unusual punishment.
Justice Stevens worried that it might take 11 minutes rather than 7 for a condemned killer to die. But he voted to stay the execution of Earl Wesley Berry to decide only if lethal injection, previously advocated by Stevens as a lethal gas substitute, was inhumane. The justices voting for this stay said nothing about further victimizing the family of Berry’s brutally murdered victim. A local paper called it cruel not to execute Berry: “ironic that a man who beat and stomped to death a woman now hopes the justice system will save him from a death he believes is ‘cruel and inhumane.’” The daughter referred (n319) to suffering caused by “hav[ing] to deal with court proceedings and appeals processes” for two decades.
Although executing the most barbaric murderers causes stress, tears and excruciation for the likes of Ginsburg and Blackmun, they are heedless of the torment expressed by a son 30 years after his father was murdered: “It never ends for families … It’s just not right that it goes on and on.” Having waited 25 years for execution of her family’s murderer, Harrington (367) said the “loss of loved ones is enough agony that one should bear, much less the constant reminders of the criminal’s appeals, protests and constant complaints ….”
Doubly victimized – and Stevens denies they are victims at all!!
Now, judicially, legislatively or both, the Petit survivors are likely to suffer elite contempt for victims.
THE PETIT ROBBERY-RAPE-ARSON-MURDERS
This case has been reported widely, in detail. Briefly, in July 2007, Komisarjevsky and Stephen Hayes broke into the home of Dr. William A. Petit. They forced his wife to withdraw money from a bank, brought her back, tied up, sexually attacked, doused with gasoline and burned alive her and her 11 and 17-year-old daughters. They also attacked Dr. Petit, who survived.
Two points are especially significant.
First, because there is no doubt whatsoever as to guilt of either perpetrator, this case shows clearly how the legal system has been debased into a weapon to torture already victimized loved ones of victims of the clearly guilty. Although Komisarjevsky’s lawyers conceded (4) he is so dangerous that permanent incarceration is required, they sought four months for jury selection alone, followed by two more months before his trial finally begins, while accusing (3) the trial judge of “cringing accommodation to …. speed demanded by the victim….” For his part, the judge pointed out (6): “By the time the jury in this [second] case is impaneled, over four years will have elapsed since the crime.”
Second, most murder victim families and trials receive very little attention; here there has been enormous coverage. However, while the coverage has been unique, the suffering inflicted by the dysfunctional nature of the American “justice” system is not unique at all. Elites – not only judges but elected legislators – have callous contempt for victims, be they publicized or unknown. Prior to signing the highly unpopular Illinois death penalty repeal, Gov. Quinn refused even to meet with the mother of a viciously raped, tortured and murdered girl. Connecticut’s elected governor and legislators strove mightily to show their scorn for democracy generally and Dr. Petit particularly by trying to repeal capital punishment even before Komisarjevsky could be tried. That appears to have been temporarily averted. But those who side with murderers are relentless and promise to come back after the trial, so that the public and Dr. Petit will sooner or later receive their contempt. Repeal is “inevitable,” they promise.
Much delay results from duplicitous abolitionist legislators who seek to deceive the public by voting for popular death penalty legislation only after they insert poison pill provisions to render it ineffective. Such politicians will not fix the system (8) to enable enforcement when their true goal is to make this impossible.
If prominent victims can be tortured, what chance is there for those who suffer unnoticed?
Dr. Petit, his family and friends already have endured not only agony from the barbaric crime, but also from the system. Tragically, this seems likely to continue.
TORTURING THE INNOCENT TO SAVE THE GUILTY
For years, death penalty abolitionists have tried to convince the public that there have been rampant executions of the innocent – even in recent years, with multiple layers of appeals and procedural restrictions. This repeatedly (7-19) has been refuted. In reality, nearly all death penalty litigation lasting decades (374) involves the sentence, not guilt. Even justices who have done the most to undermine capital punishment concede: “a substantial claim of actual innocence [is] extremely rare. … [C]hallenges to … death [sentences] are routinely asserted … [But] …claims of actual innocence are rarely successful.”
Alleged innocence is just a convenient propaganda tool irrelevant to the true objective. Abolitionists do not oppose the death penalty for fear of executing the innocent. They oppose executing the guilty, period. Hence, they fear seeking the truth, lest it limit endless duplicative litigation to drag out any case – regardless of savagery and number of murders committed, recidivism, and overwhelming weight of evidence.
Leading opponent Bryan Stevenson called it “misguided” (25) to focus on the “wrongly convicted.” Carol and Jordan Steiker warned against “too much enthusiasm” for innocence. They cautioned that DNA tests used to attack the death penalty, by claiming “exonerations,” ultimately would provide additional support for and “salvage capital punishment” by establishing guilt conclusively.
So the main weapon is not to claim innocence but to incessantly manipulate the legal system, tying it in knots. Justice Scalia observed (12, 17): “It is just a game, after all.” The name of the game is: delay, delay, delay. When sentence challenges fail, much more delay is caused by litigating execution methods (16-20) for murderers who have inflicted maximum drawn out torture on their victims. As noted, any absurd argument will do.
Endless delays not only cause huge expenditures (not necessarily more than life imprisonment) and strain judicial resources; far worse, as documented above, they further torture already victimized survivors. Opponents thereby seek to compel death penalty supporters to surrender to total abolition. Having grossly abused the system, abolitionists use that very abuse (6) as an argument to end the abuse by ending capital punishment. On March 25, PBS premiered a “documentary,” No Tomorrow, again arguing the death penalty is too costly – based on the case of a brutal triple killer “neither sympathetic nor plausibly innocent”!
Abolitionists will never admit to having anything but compassion for victims, even purporting to act for their benefit. For example, Komisarjevky’s lawyers feigned concern for the Petit family in the very flood of motions attacking that family (e.g. (6), as the “Petit posse”) – contending (3) that not granting a motion would “do a disservice to… the surviving victim and the victims’ loved ones and supporters.” In declaring a 300-pound man’s rape of an 8-year-old girl, requiring painful surgery, insufficiently depraved to warrant the death penalty, a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court claimed (32) to lessen the victim’s ordeal of aiding prosecution – as though she would not have to testify in a non-capital trial!
Gov. Corzine (NJ) said he signed a death penalty repeal to spare loved ones from being “more deeply hurt by long delays and endless appeals….”
Despite this faux concern for victims, those who most stridently oppose the death penalty as cruel and unusual punishment for the guilty have absolutely no compunction about perverting the law to impose such punishment upon the innocent. And so much the better if a public relations coup can be extracted from even a few tortured victims seemingly experiencing Stockholm Syndrome – so that, rather than protesting the abuse inflicted upon them, they submissively join their tormenters to seek abolition of the death penalty on the precise ground that it is cruel and unusual punishment for them instead of convicted murderers.
WAS THE OLD JUSTICE WORSE THAN THE NEW?
“The demands of justice have been satisfied,” began the long July 1, 1882 front-page New York Times report on the Guiteau execution. Today, the same paper deems it injustice to execute even a presidential assassin proud of his deed. Nevertheless, countless polls show the 1882 Times closer to 2011 public values.
Other than abolitionists, few would deny that justice requires not only prevention of convicting the innocent but also protecting the law-abiding and expeditiously meting out punishment deemed just by society (not judges or elite newspapers). Yet, those who now dominate the legal system have no use for an ancient maxim: “justice delayed is justice denied.” For them, justice delayed is justice. However, Chief Justice Burger worried that delay would “drain even a just judgment of its value,” thereby undermining essential public confidence in the courts.
The Sixth Amendment provides: “the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial.”
Decades ago, the Supreme Court held that the right to a public trial is not confined to the accused because the public has a right to be informed. By the same token, if the securing public safety is the first duty of government, justice demands a right to a speedy trial for the public as well as the accused. On its face, it is grievously unjust when, as in the Petit case, it takes more than four years to bring to trial a defendant whose lawyers seek life imprisonment in the “public interest” while complaining about too much speed. Is that what the Constitution’s Framers had in mind? Did their concept of justice intend defendants to have two rights, both to speed and endless delaying tactics subjecting victimized survivors to endless ordeals? Was such cruel punishment of victims “usual” when the Constitution was adopted?
Ironically, it is the innocent who benefit from speed,while interminable delay is the ally of the guilty at the expense of justice for their victims. The examples provided here, both old and new, involve the indisputably guilty. Whatever the claimed defects of the old justice system, today’s safeguards (9-12) make wrongful conviction in capital cases rare at worst, leaving abolitionists in a desperate futile search for an actual execution of an innocent person. By tragic contrast, murders are far from rare: 738,000 homicides in 38 years!
Also far from rare is decades-long litigation aimed, as noted, at saving the guilty, not avoiding conviction of the innocent. The whole purpose of abolitionist tactics is to prevent all executions, using every ludicrous pretext either to void death sentences or keep murderers alive until natural death.
Is it justice when fresh victims are murdered by previously convicted recidivists, causing yet more suffering (3, 10) for loved ones? (The Petit savagery was committed by paroled recidivists.) Is it justice to inflict cruel and unusual punishment on victims in order to enable the barbaric guilty to avoid just punishment?
Surely, there is much to be said for the old legal system. Moreover, by maintaining modern protections for the innocent and abolishing judicial and legislative subterfuges to avoid justly punishing the guilty, a combination of the best of the old and the new can be created.
CONCLUSION: Surrender or Fight?
What can be done about a travesty of justice system declared “impossible to defend” by a state chief justice?
Gail Canzano and Marilyn Flax, quoted at the outset, make clear the choice: Repeal the law or enforce the law. Indefensibly surrender to the indefensible or fight to make the system defensible.
Surrender is especially unjustified because, with great consistency for a very long time, capital punishment has had overwhelming public support, notwithstanding that very many have bought the repeatedly refuted claim that innocents are executed. The only choice is to fight – to fight those fanatically devoted to brutal murderers and unconcerned about victims.
The first step in that fight is to inform the public of the intolerable abuses shown here. The media have egregiously failed. Rectifying that failure is the purpose of this article.
Note; Lester Jackson has written articles showing how the media has enabled the Supreme Court to undermine the death penalty. He views mainstream media misrepresentation and suppression of the truth as essential to harmful judicial activism. A former college teacher, he has a Ph.D. in Political Science.
Copyright ©: 2011 Lester Jackson, Ph.D.
Post Published: 19 May 2011
Found in section: Lester Jackson, More From Our Pundits
Jun 12, 2011
The Casey Anthony Trial, a Cult of Infamy
One of the better articles out there regarding Caylee Anthony's murder and the trial proceedings.
However, immaturity and dysfunction do not explain Casey Anthony,nor what to many seem unfathomable behavior and utter callousness
as displayed in the excerpt of her courthouse note to a fellow inmate. All of this nonsensical attention over the so called mystique and
mystery surrounding how a "attractive young woman" could kill her child and be so distanced from her own despicable actions(as to
rent videos go out dancing and get tattoos in the weeks and months following the murder) is really becoming very old very fast.
With all of this incessant writing concerning this case all of the ludicrous media attention, we rarely see or hear or read the word: SOCIOPATH.
Even Huffington Post, usually a decent Blog with decent writers, of varying degrees, are either reluctant to "go there" I am ssuming
because Anthony is a female and what the writer perceives as a "young attractive" one at that or out of ignorance, which considering the rest of the article and its relative insightfulness, I find unlikely.
So there you have it; if an intelligent legal analyst/writer cannot seem to bring themself to hastily arrive at this obvious conclusion, what are they doing haranguing about the worldwide attention due to the "mystery" of how this women with anti-social personality disorder, did what sociopath's do?
In the meantime, lets pray for Caylee's perfect little soul and Justice for her brutal death.
However, immaturity and dysfunction do not explain Casey Anthony,nor what to many seem unfathomable behavior and utter callousness
as displayed in the excerpt of her courthouse note to a fellow inmate. All of this nonsensical attention over the so called mystique and
mystery surrounding how a "attractive young woman" could kill her child and be so distanced from her own despicable actions(as to
rent videos go out dancing and get tattoos in the weeks and months following the murder) is really becoming very old very fast.
With all of this incessant writing concerning this case all of the ludicrous media attention, we rarely see or hear or read the word: SOCIOPATH.
Even Huffington Post, usually a decent Blog with decent writers, of varying degrees, are either reluctant to "go there" I am ssuming
because Anthony is a female and what the writer perceives as a "young attractive" one at that or out of ignorance, which considering the rest of the article and its relative insightfulness, I find unlikely.
So there you have it; if an intelligent legal analyst/writer cannot seem to bring themself to hastily arrive at this obvious conclusion, what are they doing haranguing about the worldwide attention due to the "mystery" of how this women with anti-social personality disorder, did what sociopath's do?
In the meantime, lets pray for Caylee's perfect little soul and Justice for her brutal death.
Komisarjevsky Trial To Continue As Planned
We've got all necessary Jurors and the trial is going to continue on schedule, thank God. The Komisarjevsky defense "team" has literally tried every sleazy trick in the book, with absolutely no conscience, in order to stall the inevitable: Justice for the assaults and murders of Michaela, Hayley and JJennifer Petit. And lest anyone forget the near fatal baseball bat assault upon William Petit jr.head and brain, from which he certainly still suffers from daily.
They've petitioned the appellate and supreme courts, when they've gotten nowhere with Judge Blue, they've buried the prosecution and the judge, in a veritable snowstorm of paperwork for the dual purposes of
encouraging a white flag plea bargain from what they invision as the beleagured prosecution and Petit families, and if nothing else stall stall and stall some more. All of this is of course a glaring abuse of the system, as well the bit of power that they have as officers of the court.
I've personally read nearly every single motion that these lawyers so eloquently comprised (with help from their team of minions)they are all show no go--not one issue that they broach and meander endlessly about is viable; legally, judiciously or ethically-Athough I think by now, the latter has become a non- issue, as the moral turpitude that is the Joshua Komisarjevsky's defense has been thus recognized from quite early in the process and certainly by now the people of the state and other caring onlookers,know what were dealing with.
They've petitioned the appellate and supreme courts, when they've gotten nowhere with Judge Blue, they've buried the prosecution and the judge, in a veritable snowstorm of paperwork for the dual purposes of
encouraging a white flag plea bargain from what they invision as the beleagured prosecution and Petit families, and if nothing else stall stall and stall some more. All of this is of course a glaring abuse of the system, as well the bit of power that they have as officers of the court.
I've personally read nearly every single motion that these lawyers so eloquently comprised (with help from their team of minions)they are all show no go--not one issue that they broach and meander endlessly about is viable; legally, judiciously or ethically-Athough I think by now, the latter has become a non- issue, as the moral turpitude that is the Joshua Komisarjevsky's defense has been thus recognized from quite early in the process and certainly by now the people of the state and other caring onlookers,know what were dealing with.
Jun 1, 2011
Connecticut Law Tribune: In Civilized Society, Vengeance Is A Good Thing
A good Op-Ed on the whole overblown Senator comment "issue".
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