Penis interruptus

When Edith-gate broke last week, there were plenty of questions being asked about the future of the death penalty, the propriety of the Senator’s comments, the level of contortion required of the Supreme Court to get out from under this one, but the most pressing question that most seemed to miss was what this meant for the ongoing trial of Joshua Komisarjevsky.

Now we have a partial answer: his lawyers filed this motion today (thanks, Courant!) asking the Hon. Judge Blue to interrupt jury selection for three months to allow the torturous image of a man hanging by his penis from a tree on Main Street to fade from the memories of the general public. The motion seeks a continuance of three months for this to happen. It does not request scrubbing Sen. Prague’s mouth with soap. An excerpt:

Her public comments were clearly reckless and undignified for an individual who is a member of the Connecticut legislature and her comments only serve to contribute to the mob mentality. If the senator truly did not care what people think of her reversal, she could have simply announced her reversal in a more responsible manner without need for anatomical reference. It is outrageous that an elected official of the senator’s stature would publicly advocate for public torture and attempt to subvert the judicial process with such sensational remarks.

(Are you paying attention, Connecticut Bar, Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Association and CT Network to Abolish the Death Penalty?) This is a valiant effort and the motion includes lots of evocative and motivational language that is sure to rile up Komisarjevsky’s opponents and stir the smoldering embers within the heart of every abolitionist, but ultimately, it is a fool’s errand. Judge Blue is just as likely to grant this request as I am to become the next President of France.

What the motion does, however, is to highlight the inherent difficulty in selecting a jury in a case as inflammatory (pun wholly unintended) as this. It mentions a potential juror, who while being questioned seemed to give all the right answers, but upon being excused, erupted in cries of “Murderer! Asshole!” directed squarely at the defendant. If this were the case prior to Senator Prague’s comments, the motion argues, how are we to prevent the inclusion of such people, now emboldened by an elected official’s animalistic outburst, on this jury of supposed neutral peers?

That’s a rhetorical question.

You can thank me later for not including a picture with this post.