Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky broke into the home of the Petit family in July 2007. The only survivor from the attack on the family was Dr. William Petit, Jr. who was beaten with a baseball bat and left to die in the basement. Steven Hayes raped and strangled Dr. Petit’s wife, and the daughters Haley and Michaela were assaulted, restrained, and doused with gasoline. They died in the fire of smoke inhalation.
It is a case that many followed and when both defendants were convicted and sentenced to death for the murders, many breathed a sigh of relief that these men would never walk the streets a free man ever again. I am very much torn when it comes to the death penalty. There are definitely cases that are so egregious and horrific that cause me to yell “Take them to the gallows!”, but at the end of the day I question the absolute right of government to exact death. I’m really not sure how I feel about the death penalty and it is a subject that causes much turmoil when discussed.
Steven Hayes was sentenced to death for his crimes and has been sitting in a Connecticut prison for years. He has recently declared that he wishes to waive direct appeal and go straight to the death chamber. Why is he ready to call it a day?
“I cannot live with the intense tourcher [sic], torment, harrassment, and the resulting psychological trauma dished out by the Dept. of Corr. staff here at Northern.” (October 11, 2012)
He cannot live with the torture and harassment of the Department of Corrections. He cannot take another day of the psychological trauma being dished out to him behind the prison walls. I wonder if Hayes thinks of the psychological trauma that Dr. Petit endures and will continue to endure for the rest of his life because he and his co-defendant killed off his family?
In this instance, I’m not feeling much sympathy for Steven Hayes and if he wants to check out, perhaps the State will oblige him quickly.
I feel there should be no death row inmates as soon as they are convicted by a jury of there peers they should be exicuted.There should be several ways to put them to death for these crimes.It should be either chosen by a lottery system or a wheel of punishment.Spin the wheel what ever it stops on hanging,firing squad,lethal injection,electrocution. enjoy yourself you have 1 hr to live.They should also be telivised so people can see if you commit a terrible crime this is what will happen to you
I absolutely agree with this. I with all my heart believe in an ” eye for an eye”.. As humans we have choices, decisions to make. Not always easy, but we make them everyday. I believe there are consequences to every action. My daughter was molested at the age of 4. He was someone we loved and thought to be family. He never thought about what he was doing and how it would impact, her, our family, and even his own family.. Steven Hayes made a decision that day, he knew the consequences, he never thought to think about how it would be for everyone left behind. I say we pour gas on him and light that sucker sky high… I have no sympathy for people like this. Innocent children murdered and its supposed to be “ol poor him, and his psychological troubles”…. Hell no. No one should be treated the way he treated that family.. I’m sorry but I hope they let him die sooner rather than later. As for televising it, sounds to me like a good after school special.. “THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HARM OTHERS”!! Bet you a lot less kids would be in juvenile detention…
I have no compassion for child molesters and think that they are given way too many chances to redeem themselves - at the expense of their innocent victims. They can never be fixed and most always reoffend. There are evil people in the world and while my emotions get carried away on a lot of these cases, I just don’t know that I could be the one to pull the switch. Could I cheer on the executioner? I’m not sure about that either, but absolutely there must be punishment that fits the crime.
You say you believe in “an eye for an eye” yet you do not understand it at all…it is a directive to LIMIT revenge, not aggressively seek it or enact it. Go read more than just that line, read pages before and after it to understand God’s entire message….this is pretty basic, but so many mis-interpret and mis-understand this line, it’s really a shame to pervert it’s intended direction and meaning.
I completely disagree with you on all counts. Think of all the people who are found guilty by a jury of their own peers but are really innocent of any crime. Such as Damien Echols one of the “West Memphis 3″ He spent 17 years on death row for a crime he did not commit. A crime that had absolutely no evidence proving any of these 3 boys were guilty. Just because a jury finds a person guilty, it doesn’t always mean they are guilty. The system is flawed. You have jury tampering, crooked judges, crooked prosecutors and politics plays a huge role in cases. Personally, I don’t agree with the death penalty not as it stands today. Not with such a flawed system. Unless you can make it perfect and assure innocent people don’t die, then the death penalty should never be used.
As for televising them, I can’t even imagine why someone would want to see another put to death.
That’s where I have a problem, too Joaps. Emotion gets the best of me on some of the facts of the cases and the gut reaction is OMG! DIE!, but especially in cases such as the West Memphis 3. They were innocent and found guilty not on evidence but COERCED testimony.
Just want to add I am not defending this murderer! I say let him suffer in prison. Death is the easy way out.
let me say this so as not to confuse anyone.If without a doubt a person is guilty of a crime proven guilty by evidence and witnesses and sentenced to death.Then they should be exicuted within a certain time period.
This is one of those crimes that are so horrible, I’ll never forget it. Steven Hayes can’t live with the torture he receives in prison? Well Steve-O, what about the Petit women that you and Josh K tortured and murdered? They didn’t have a choice to live or die, did they?
What about the torture Dr Petit lives with everyday? He has a choice to live or die, he chose to live and honor his family with The Petit Foundation. Dr Petit also remarried recently. I wish he and his new wife nothing but love & happiness. He will never have his beloved family back, i but hopefully through his new marriage he can find even a tiny bit of closure. May he heal even more and fight monsters like you.
Grant this POS his request. Why waste anymore money on him?
I think if he wants to die his request should be granted. Again, the death penalty issue is one that is really centers on our personal moral fiber. Just want to remind everyone that we may have differing opinions on it, but please respect the opinion of others who don’t agree with your personal opinion. I know it’s hard not to get passionate about these types of issues, but we are all entitled to our opinion — even if it’s unpopular.
Hayes’ wishes mean nothing to me.He deserves no say in how long he is to live, or how and if he will be put to death by the state. The Petit family had no control over their last hours on earth. He deserves the same level of control over his person, his surroundings and his future. Any sort of medical care should be witheld from him, such as medication, dental work or anal reconstructive surgery. Furthermore, he should be charged for the time of the court that he has wasted in filing motions on his own behalf
These are such difficult issues. Every now and then, there appears a poster child for the death penalty. Truly evil monsters for whom there is no doubt of there guilt. But in the end, it is not so difficult. It is not possible to apply the death penalty to the Hayes of the world without applying it to less clear cases. The problem is that as humans, we cannot perform any task with perfection. Whether it is launching a space shuttle with out blowing up or performing neurosurgery on the correct side or even patient. The price we will pay for the execution of Steven Hayes is the chance of executing an innocent. That makes us no better than them. In addition, when we execute an innocent, there is a guilty that goes free. And as OJ Simpson showed us, enough money can get the guilty off scott free to search the golf courses of Florida for the real killer. And, as a previous poster pointed out, this monster prefers the easy exit of a barbiturate induced coma over a tortured life behind bars. This animal deserves to life a long life filled with one day after endless day to be reminded of the horror of his crime.
And that’s where I find myself torn. The emotional part of me demands justice, but at what cost?
Prinnie,The emotional part is exactly the problem. On July 3, 1997 6 year old Elizabeth Knapp of the tiny town of Hopkinton, NH was brutally raped and suffocated to death in her bed. The state, to nothing of this tiny hamlet in rural NH, had never seen such a horrific act, perpetrated on the most innocent and vulnerable…a six year old child. Her mother told the investigators that she witnessed her live in boyfriend (Richard Buchanon) of five years in the act. She even went on to say that she saw him dragging the girl around by her hair. Her statement seemed irrefutable. The State felt that the only charge that would stand up was second degree murder due to the circumstance. This monster would escape the ultimate penalty. Virtually everyone in the State was outraged at this. If ever there was a case that would demand the death penalty, this was it. The crime was one of the worst ever seen in the State and the evidence was overwhelming. Who could doubt the credibility of an eye witness who had known the perpetrator for five years and lived under the same roof with him. Even the then Governor, Jeanne Shaheen expressed her outrage that Buchanon would get away with his life. There was one minor problem. He didn’t do it. The semen found on the girl’s body was shown by DNA analysis to belong to neighbor Jimmy Dale, who was ultimately convicted of the crime and is serving 60 years in the NH State Prison. Buchanon spent six months in jail before he was exonerated. He had to spend that time in solitary confinement due to the risk of letting him mix with the general population. Shaheen agitated for a change in the New Hampshire death penalty to allow for, among other things, death for the murder of anyone under the age of thirteen. Had this crime occured ten years earlier with Shaheen’s proposed reforms in place, there is little doubt that Buchanon would have been executed for a crime he did not commit. It is the most heinous of crimes that are apt to provoke us to abandon logic and reason in favor of an emotional “somebody’s got to pay” response. That is not the mark of a civil society.
This is EXACTLY why he should stay in prison and remain alive…so he CAN be psychologically trauma and being “tormented” by the CT Department of Corrections.
Although he should eventually be put to death for the brutal and heinous nature of his crime…right now he needs to suffer more on this earth for murdering and raping Mrs. Petit and her daughters and for leaving Dr. Petit for dead.
Exactly Mariana. Death is the easy way out for this guy. Let him live to be 90 and suffer every minute of every day.