Jul 28, 2009
Conn. home-invasion survivor faces court ordeal
Another good article covering the recent hearing on the Petit case..
Dr. William Petit speaks outside courthouse
This is a video from outside the New haven Superior Court building where Dr Petit and other members of the Hawke, Petit and Renn families gathered after the day's hearing. Dr Petit had asked to make a statement at the hearing itself but after objections from the defense and subsequent discussions between Judge Damiani the defense and the prosecutor, he did not make the statement.
For this reason he was forced to read only part of the prepared statement outside of the building where a sizable portion of the media had gathered.
Below is a quote taken from his statement that pretty well sums up his message to the court and the state of Connecticut. This man's courage is a great example to all of us: Instead of simply relenting and giving in to the broken and ineffectual justice system that has become the status quo here in Connecticut, he is doing everything in his power to bring attention to the failings where they exist in an effort to replace them with reforms that put the victim first.
"I suggest that our whole system is out of kilter and victims rights are totally abused."
Dr Bill Petit
For this reason he was forced to read only part of the prepared statement outside of the building where a sizable portion of the media had gathered.
Below is a quote taken from his statement that pretty well sums up his message to the court and the state of Connecticut. This man's courage is a great example to all of us: Instead of simply relenting and giving in to the broken and ineffectual justice system that has become the status quo here in Connecticut, he is doing everything in his power to bring attention to the failings where they exist in an effort to replace them with reforms that put the victim first.
"I suggest that our whole system is out of kilter and victims rights are totally abused."
Dr Bill Petit
Jul 22, 2009
Cheshire murder suspects head to court
A more comprehensive article regarding yesterday's hearing in New Haven on the Petit case.
Jul 21, 2009
Jul 20, 2009
Jul 19, 2009
Thousands run in Plainville for Petit Family Foundation
Picured above is Dr William Petit Jr, founder of the Petit Family Foundation, the Race day's beneficiary.
The 5k Race-day day in Plainville was a great success and a lot of fun! The event, which was the second of its kind, had an even bigger turnout than last year with an estimated 3000 people attending!
It will likely be an annual tradition for many years to come. Kudos to every volunteer , organizer and every helpful soul that made the day such a success!
Dr. William A. Petit, two years later
This is an interview with Dr William Petit, two years after the crimes that took
his family and inadvertently sparked an en-masse philanthropic movement of sorts here in Connecticut.
You'll see a perfect example of this communal philanthropy in the rapidly approaching "5K Race day" scheduled for this Sunday afternoon in Plainville.
Dr Petit grew up in Plainville and has resided there with his parents since the crimes: His parents have very strong ties to the town and the surrounding communities.
The 5k race is in fact the second of its kind, having proved so successful in its
first launch (in 08) which the founders and organizers set their sites on making it an annual event.
Last July, thousands of people turned out on one of the hottest days of the summer, many of them to run in a substantial foot course, in an effort to show their support for the family and the Petit Family Foundation,
http://www.petitfamilyfoundation.org/ , the nonprofit charity that Dr Petit created in the memory of his wife and daughters, all of whom were very active in volunteer work and community outreach.
The Petit Family Foundation has a broad focus: donated and raised funds from events like the 5K Race- day will go to help victims of violent crime as well as people suffering with chronic illness, such as Multiple Sclerosis . The Petit girls and their mom were very involved with the M.S Foundation beginning when Jennifer Hawke Petit was diagnosed with MS during the mid- nineties.
According to Dr Petit, in the beginning the girls wanted to help their mom they were worried she would die from the disease, but as they grew older their focus became a desire to help anyone who suffered with this challenging and poorly understood disease.
Dr Petit wished to carry on the girls spirit of volunteerism and idealism long after their deaths. It would seem that he has done an excellent job, and helped an awful lot of people in the proccess.
his family and inadvertently sparked an en-masse philanthropic movement of sorts here in Connecticut.
You'll see a perfect example of this communal philanthropy in the rapidly approaching "5K Race day" scheduled for this Sunday afternoon in Plainville.
Dr Petit grew up in Plainville and has resided there with his parents since the crimes: His parents have very strong ties to the town and the surrounding communities.
The 5k race is in fact the second of its kind, having proved so successful in its
first launch (in 08) which the founders and organizers set their sites on making it an annual event.
Last July, thousands of people turned out on one of the hottest days of the summer, many of them to run in a substantial foot course, in an effort to show their support for the family and the Petit Family Foundation,
http://www.petitfamilyfoundation.org/ , the nonprofit charity that Dr Petit created in the memory of his wife and daughters, all of whom were very active in volunteer work and community outreach.
The Petit Family Foundation has a broad focus: donated and raised funds from events like the 5K Race- day will go to help victims of violent crime as well as people suffering with chronic illness, such as Multiple Sclerosis . The Petit girls and their mom were very involved with the M.S Foundation beginning when Jennifer Hawke Petit was diagnosed with MS during the mid- nineties.
According to Dr Petit, in the beginning the girls wanted to help their mom they were worried she would die from the disease, but as they grew older their focus became a desire to help anyone who suffered with this challenging and poorly understood disease.
Dr Petit wished to carry on the girls spirit of volunteerism and idealism long after their deaths. It would seem that he has done an excellent job, and helped an awful lot of people in the proccess.
Jul 13, 2009
Road race to benefit Petit Family Foundation
Looks like Race day is upon us - The 2nd Annual Petit Family Foundation 5K
Road race will be held this Sunday. July 19th in Plainville Connecticut!
The Race supports a great cause and promises to be a fun day! Besides the 5k
race and "fitness walk", there are activities and award ceremonies for kids and adults and many refreshments to boot!
Please come and bring your friends and/or family - You can register for either
of the day's races in advance via the Petit family 5k Race day site below, or in person the morning of the race prior to 8;30 AM.
For non- runners and those of us with creaky knees and such, there
is a gentler 'fitness walk" which is great exersize and allows you to take a more active part in the days events.
For those who don't know, The Petit Family Foundation is a locally based non-profit that helps support those affected by violent crime and chronic illness as well as awarding scholarships to deserving young students in the community.
The foundation was formed by Dr William Petit Jr formerly of Cheshire Connecticut in order to help honor the lives of his wife Jennifer Hawke Petit
and thier two daughters Hayley and Michaela. each of whom were killed in a
home invasion in July 2007. Dr Petit was the sole survivor and he sustained
severe head injuries in the attack.
The crimes deeply affected both the community as well as the entire state at
large. It subsequently prompted many residents to become more involved in
good works, particularly those with human suffering at thier core. The 5k race
day is one such example of this coordinated altruism.
Please come and be a part of this important and far reaching good cause - last year's Race day was a huge success -Thousands turned out on one of the hottest days of the year; Many lives were changed for the better as a result. We hope to make this level of success a yearly tradition.
Further Details of the 5k Raceday event can be found at the Petit Family Foundation Raceday Website here www.petitroadrace.com/index.shtml
Road race will be held this Sunday. July 19th in Plainville Connecticut!
The Race supports a great cause and promises to be a fun day! Besides the 5k
race and "fitness walk", there are activities and award ceremonies for kids and adults and many refreshments to boot!
Please come and bring your friends and/or family - You can register for either
of the day's races in advance via the Petit family 5k Race day site below, or in person the morning of the race prior to 8;30 AM.
For non- runners and those of us with creaky knees and such, there
is a gentler 'fitness walk" which is great exersize and allows you to take a more active part in the days events.
For those who don't know, The Petit Family Foundation is a locally based non-profit that helps support those affected by violent crime and chronic illness as well as awarding scholarships to deserving young students in the community.
The foundation was formed by Dr William Petit Jr formerly of Cheshire Connecticut in order to help honor the lives of his wife Jennifer Hawke Petit
and thier two daughters Hayley and Michaela. each of whom were killed in a
home invasion in July 2007. Dr Petit was the sole survivor and he sustained
severe head injuries in the attack.
The crimes deeply affected both the community as well as the entire state at
large. It subsequently prompted many residents to become more involved in
good works, particularly those with human suffering at thier core. The 5k race
day is one such example of this coordinated altruism.
Please come and be a part of this important and far reaching good cause - last year's Race day was a huge success -Thousands turned out on one of the hottest days of the year; Many lives were changed for the better as a result. We hope to make this level of success a yearly tradition.
Further Details of the 5k Raceday event can be found at the Petit Family Foundation Raceday Website here www.petitroadrace.com/index.shtml
Jul 12, 2009
Don't wait for toxicology: Fame killed Michael Jackson
One of the most thoughtful and insightful articles yet regarding the very sad death of Michael Jackson.
Jul 1, 2009
Jun 30, 2009
Michael, Farrah and the death of Immortality
The other day I read a quote by a 40 something someone or other that read
"' The deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson this week "signal the
death of our childhood." ...Despite a reflexive disapproval of their choice of verbiage (the english major in me felt it couldve been more aptly expressed)
I still found myself nodding an emphatic affirmative, thinking 'yes... that's exactly it!
But now considering that even the very last stragglers of the baby boom generation have long exited their childhoods, how could we just now be feeling as if robbed of them, and this via the deaths of a few icons?
I myself was born in 1963 , a year that is oft disputed as even qualifying for true baby boomer status but in fact is technically baby boom-- And as such, even as a very late boomer, by 45 I had begun to mourn my entire youth, let alone my childhood.
Clearly the sentiment within that statement was of the metaphoric brand: It boiled down to this - any lingering sense of immortality that we middle aged folks might have still managed to hold onto, seemed suddenly and rudely yanked out from under us by the untimely deaths of an ever-growing gaggle of our childhood idols. We were beyond simply mortal now, we were perhaps on the cusp of our own demises - or that's what these deaths translated into .
And this wasn't all about Michael Jackson, although as the days wore on, the fervor was pretty much pared down to the pop legend's death. It actually began
with the news that David Carradine had died. Carradine was a relative icon of the 70's, an actor best known for his starring role in the then cutting edge t.v series, "Kung Fu". He had recently re-emerged after a long hiatus, an apparent benefactor of the Tarrantino syndrome, the quirky director reknown for reigniting the careers of long dormant once- upon- a- time stars. In the early 2000's Tarrantino pulled Carradine out of obscurity to play the lead role in a dark drama called "Kill Bill" (the name says it all.)
Carradine was in Bangkok filming a new movie when he died. Initial reports said that he had committed suicide by hanging himself in the closet of an upscale hotel room - Fortunately, the suicide assertion did not last long ;Friends and relatives were paraded in front of the news cameras each one vowing that there was no way David Carradine killed himself; He was in extremely high spirits, superb health and his career was in a full upswing.
Some suspected foul play, but the possibility that Carradine might have been murdered was soundly trounced when reports that the security video camera in his hotel hallway proved that no one but Carradine entered or exited his room on the evening that he died. Whatever happened to him, he must have done to himself . This latest bit of detail seem to interrupt the grief process and left friends and fans confused and unsure of just what to feel. Anger at his foolishness, pity for him, regret that it had happened ? After all, there was no emotional precedent for such a demise. It wasn't suicide, it wasn't murder and the facts of his death and now the media, were both suggesting that Carradine had died accidentally during an auto erotic practice.( I'd personally suspected this from the outset having seen this exact scenario in an episode of HBO'S "6 feet under" )
In the end the details of his death only made the star's death even more tragic; he had everything to live for, he was back on top of his game and yet he was still compelled to engage in dangerous auto-erotic practices that were notorious for killing people. Wasn't this just another type of killing oneself, not unlike driving drunk or doing larger and larger quantities of drugs?
And while we were recuperating from this news, it was announced rather quietly, that Farrah Fawcett has been rushed to the hospital, signaling to anyone following her life lately, that her death from metastatic liver cancer was likely imminent; She'd been battling anal cancer for several years and it had recently been found in her liver.
Just one month earlier Fawcett had invited the public into her private life via a televised documentary chronicling her daily life struggle with terminal cancer. Through this documentary I gleaned a Farrah Fawcett that was intelligent, courageous and most notably, deeply spiritual. There was an other- worldliness to her, you could see it and feel it even through the impersonal lens of the camera.
I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I was one of those people that used to assume Farrah Fawcett wasn't terribly deep- and I'm not sure why exactly.
I do know it wasnt because she was beautiful, I've lived long enough to know that a woman can be both very attractive and very intelligent, but for some reason I had been largely unaware that Farrah was such a rare class of woman. Perhaps her illness had added these layers to her But I suspect that she was a very special person long before she took ill.
Farrah death was announced on the news just a few hours after her hospital admission. This was somewhere between Ed McMahon's dying and the original reports of David Carradines strange and tragic death.
At this tenuous point, we the baby boomers had lost three icons of varying degrees in a 2 week period. And just as the sun was going down on this sad day,there was more bad news, and this time completely out of left field; Michael Jackson had apparently just died of cardiac arrest after being rushed to a hospital from his home in LA, where "he'd collapsed from unknown causes."
Anyone who tunes into the nightly news, even sporadically, was aware that Jackson was in the midst of preparations for a huge comeback concert tour to be held in London-This only made the timing of his death that much more of a shock .
We had all seen Michael at his worst, during the trial for his accused molestation case (of which He was acquitted)We saw the news clips of him,wearing pajama bottoms to court, being helped to walk by his bodyguards, with that eveil looking trol of a father He was frail and very ill looking. To me he looked as if he was dying of a broken heart, and in retrospect, he very might well have been.
But here we were all expecting a comeback for the king of pop- indeed most of us were rooting for jackson, having grown up with him quite literally, first as part of the Jackson five and then later as a solo artist . Yes there was trouble in his life and it seemed more and more clear to me that there were substance abuse issues at the core of many of his erratic behaviors. But when I heard about the tour I assumed that he'd cleaned up, and I was genuinely happy for him.
A month later he was dead.
"' The deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson this week "signal the
death of our childhood." ...Despite a reflexive disapproval of their choice of verbiage (the english major in me felt it couldve been more aptly expressed)
I still found myself nodding an emphatic affirmative, thinking 'yes... that's exactly it!
But now considering that even the very last stragglers of the baby boom generation have long exited their childhoods, how could we just now be feeling as if robbed of them, and this via the deaths of a few icons?
I myself was born in 1963 , a year that is oft disputed as even qualifying for true baby boomer status but in fact is technically baby boom-- And as such, even as a very late boomer, by 45 I had begun to mourn my entire youth, let alone my childhood.
Clearly the sentiment within that statement was of the metaphoric brand: It boiled down to this - any lingering sense of immortality that we middle aged folks might have still managed to hold onto, seemed suddenly and rudely yanked out from under us by the untimely deaths of an ever-growing gaggle of our childhood idols. We were beyond simply mortal now, we were perhaps on the cusp of our own demises - or that's what these deaths translated into .
And this wasn't all about Michael Jackson, although as the days wore on, the fervor was pretty much pared down to the pop legend's death. It actually began
with the news that David Carradine had died. Carradine was a relative icon of the 70's, an actor best known for his starring role in the then cutting edge t.v series, "Kung Fu". He had recently re-emerged after a long hiatus, an apparent benefactor of the Tarrantino syndrome, the quirky director reknown for reigniting the careers of long dormant once- upon- a- time stars. In the early 2000's Tarrantino pulled Carradine out of obscurity to play the lead role in a dark drama called "Kill Bill" (the name says it all.)
Carradine was in Bangkok filming a new movie when he died. Initial reports said that he had committed suicide by hanging himself in the closet of an upscale hotel room - Fortunately, the suicide assertion did not last long ;Friends and relatives were paraded in front of the news cameras each one vowing that there was no way David Carradine killed himself; He was in extremely high spirits, superb health and his career was in a full upswing.
Some suspected foul play, but the possibility that Carradine might have been murdered was soundly trounced when reports that the security video camera in his hotel hallway proved that no one but Carradine entered or exited his room on the evening that he died. Whatever happened to him, he must have done to himself . This latest bit of detail seem to interrupt the grief process and left friends and fans confused and unsure of just what to feel. Anger at his foolishness, pity for him, regret that it had happened ? After all, there was no emotional precedent for such a demise. It wasn't suicide, it wasn't murder and the facts of his death and now the media, were both suggesting that Carradine had died accidentally during an auto erotic practice.( I'd personally suspected this from the outset having seen this exact scenario in an episode of HBO'S "6 feet under" )
In the end the details of his death only made the star's death even more tragic; he had everything to live for, he was back on top of his game and yet he was still compelled to engage in dangerous auto-erotic practices that were notorious for killing people. Wasn't this just another type of killing oneself, not unlike driving drunk or doing larger and larger quantities of drugs?
And while we were recuperating from this news, it was announced rather quietly, that Farrah Fawcett has been rushed to the hospital, signaling to anyone following her life lately, that her death from metastatic liver cancer was likely imminent; She'd been battling anal cancer for several years and it had recently been found in her liver.
Just one month earlier Fawcett had invited the public into her private life via a televised documentary chronicling her daily life struggle with terminal cancer. Through this documentary I gleaned a Farrah Fawcett that was intelligent, courageous and most notably, deeply spiritual. There was an other- worldliness to her, you could see it and feel it even through the impersonal lens of the camera.
I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I was one of those people that used to assume Farrah Fawcett wasn't terribly deep- and I'm not sure why exactly.
I do know it wasnt because she was beautiful, I've lived long enough to know that a woman can be both very attractive and very intelligent, but for some reason I had been largely unaware that Farrah was such a rare class of woman. Perhaps her illness had added these layers to her But I suspect that she was a very special person long before she took ill.
Farrah death was announced on the news just a few hours after her hospital admission. This was somewhere between Ed McMahon's dying and the original reports of David Carradines strange and tragic death.
At this tenuous point, we the baby boomers had lost three icons of varying degrees in a 2 week period. And just as the sun was going down on this sad day,there was more bad news, and this time completely out of left field; Michael Jackson had apparently just died of cardiac arrest after being rushed to a hospital from his home in LA, where "he'd collapsed from unknown causes."
Anyone who tunes into the nightly news, even sporadically, was aware that Jackson was in the midst of preparations for a huge comeback concert tour to be held in London-This only made the timing of his death that much more of a shock .
We had all seen Michael at his worst, during the trial for his accused molestation case (of which He was acquitted)We saw the news clips of him,wearing pajama bottoms to court, being helped to walk by his bodyguards, with that eveil looking trol of a father He was frail and very ill looking. To me he looked as if he was dying of a broken heart, and in retrospect, he very might well have been.
But here we were all expecting a comeback for the king of pop- indeed most of us were rooting for jackson, having grown up with him quite literally, first as part of the Jackson five and then later as a solo artist . Yes there was trouble in his life and it seemed more and more clear to me that there were substance abuse issues at the core of many of his erratic behaviors. But when I heard about the tour I assumed that he'd cleaned up, and I was genuinely happy for him.
A month later he was dead.
continued..
Jun 20, 2009
Jun 12, 2009
Recidivism Part One
If ever there was an argument for the existence of the Death Penalty, this
web page has dozens of them- I warn you, its hard to read but as responsible, conscientious people,
we must.
With each and every story on that page there is a victim, a life
ended brutally, in every instance. What separates these horrible murders from
the thousands of others that tragically occur each year in this country is that every one of these murders should have never happened . I don't mean this in an existential random and cruel nature of the cosmos type of thing
(ie being in the wrong place at the wrong time) I mean it literally- these murders should have never happened because
every one of them was committed by men who had been previously arrested and convicted of other murder/ or multiple murders in many instances. Having
served clearly inadequate prison sentences, they were all released back upon
the public and in short order, they all killed again.
This set of stories is a must read for everyone, particularly those who consider themselves on the fence concerning the death penalty. More often than not, I hear people say that they are against the Death Penalty "theoretically" And then they go on to say that " in this one case however they feel it is necessary"- At this juncture I usually will suggest to them that this means that
they in fact do believe in the death penalty, and like many other conscientous people, altough they are not gung-ho to put someone to death,
they believe that our courts should have the option of imposing this ultimate sentence, when it is warranted due to particlularly aggravating circumstances, on a careful per case basis.
While there has always been a good deal of controversy surrounding the issue
of capital punishment, as of late the controversy has reached a feverish pitch.
In my own state of Connecticut the largely democratic legislature just recently
voted in favor of a bill to abolish the death penalty. The bill was introduced by the Judiciary Committee a few weeks prior to the
actual legislative vote, taking the Connecticut public by surprise. According to newspapers, the original impetus for abolishment had its origins in financial considerations, ie the state of the current economy as well as a serious state deficit for the first time in years. The legislators were looking for ways to save money and much to the consternation of its citizens, one of the first things they
thought of was to get rid of the "expensive " and""archaic" death penalty.
Fortunately, Governor Rell vetoed the bill soon after it barely passed
muster in the State Senate with a 19-17 final vote. Both the Senate and the house lacked the two third vote margin in favor of the bill, necessary to override the Governor's veto.
To read more about the local attempt to abolish the Death Penalty here in Connecticut, read my April Post on the subject.
http://chasingnormal.blogspot.com/2009/04/committee-pushes-to-abolish-death.html
web page has dozens of them- I warn you, its hard to read but as responsible, conscientious people,
we must.
With each and every story on that page there is a victim, a life
ended brutally, in every instance. What separates these horrible murders from
the thousands of others that tragically occur each year in this country is that every one of these murders should have never happened . I don't mean this in an existential random and cruel nature of the cosmos type of thing
(ie being in the wrong place at the wrong time) I mean it literally- these murders should have never happened because
every one of them was committed by men who had been previously arrested and convicted of other murder/ or multiple murders in many instances. Having
served clearly inadequate prison sentences, they were all released back upon
the public and in short order, they all killed again.
This set of stories is a must read for everyone, particularly those who consider themselves on the fence concerning the death penalty. More often than not, I hear people say that they are against the Death Penalty "theoretically" And then they go on to say that " in this one case however they feel it is necessary"- At this juncture I usually will suggest to them that this means that
they in fact do believe in the death penalty, and like many other conscientous people, altough they are not gung-ho to put someone to death,
they believe that our courts should have the option of imposing this ultimate sentence, when it is warranted due to particlularly aggravating circumstances, on a careful per case basis.
While there has always been a good deal of controversy surrounding the issue
of capital punishment, as of late the controversy has reached a feverish pitch.
In my own state of Connecticut the largely democratic legislature just recently
voted in favor of a bill to abolish the death penalty. The bill was introduced by the Judiciary Committee a few weeks prior to the
actual legislative vote, taking the Connecticut public by surprise. According to newspapers, the original impetus for abolishment had its origins in financial considerations, ie the state of the current economy as well as a serious state deficit for the first time in years. The legislators were looking for ways to save money and much to the consternation of its citizens, one of the first things they
thought of was to get rid of the "expensive " and""archaic" death penalty.
Fortunately, Governor Rell vetoed the bill soon after it barely passed
muster in the State Senate with a 19-17 final vote. Both the Senate and the house lacked the two third vote margin in favor of the bill, necessary to override the Governor's veto.
To read more about the local attempt to abolish the Death Penalty here in Connecticut, read my April Post on the subject.
http://chasingnormal.blogspot.com/2009/04/committee-pushes-to-abolish-death.html
Jun 5, 2009
Connecticut governor vetoes attempt to ban executions
Bravo Governor Rell, thank you for your strength and your commitment to all victims of violent crime, including families and loved ones.
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