Archive for July 26, 2007

Update: I don’t want to write a new post, so I’ll just add on here. Things are getting stranger. Bob Farr can’t get out of his own way:

Earlier this week, Robert Farr, chairman of the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Parole, said that the release of the two men was appropriate based on the available evidence.

Farr then said the board didn’t have all the facts on Komisarjevsky’s background when it chose to parole him. If it had, he said, the board’s decision might have been different. Farr has said that the board had no idea a Superior Court judge had called Komisarjevsky a “cold, calculating predator” during a 2002 sentencing because a transcript of the sentencing was not included in his parole file, even though state law required it to be there.

I’ve seen worse things said during sentencing. Nasty things get said during sentencing. I very much doubt that the parole board would have denied parole based on comments at sentencing. I do find funny the notion that they didn’t have the transcript and the implication that they couldn’t do anything about it. It wouldn’t have been the first time that they canceled or postponed a parole hearing for want of documentation.

Now Gov. Rell is jumping into the act:

Rell said she is forming a special panel to review not only how Komisarjevsky and Hayes were paroled, but also to take a look at the entire process of who gets released from state prisons.

“I want a top-to-bottom assessment of all the procedures and processes involved in charging, sentencing and releasing those convicted of crimes in Connecticut. I want the facts of the Cheshire case to be used as a touchstone during the course of this examination,” she said.

I’m not quite sure what that second paragraph means. She wants a review of the judicial system in CT? Okay…

And Rep. Caligiuri has another idea:

Word that the parole board released Hayes and Komisarjevsky based on incomplete case information and without a full hearing prompted one state senator to call for an immediate moratorium on further parole decisions until a full review is complete.

“I think the entire parole process seems to be in shambles,” said Sen. Sam Caligiuri, R-Waterbury. “We can’t afford to have another mistake made. We can’t afford to have another person go out on parole until the board of parole gets its act together.”

Sigh. Screw you Hayes and Komisarjevsky.

Original: As expected, New Haven State’s Attorney Michael Dearington has charged Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky with six capital felonies each in the triple homicides in Cheshire, CT [previous coverage here].

As a colleague pointed out today, the question now becomes: Can they get a fair trial an impartial jury anywhere in this State given the publicity this crime has received?

Technorati Tags: death penalty, connecticut, triple homicide, william petit