This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Komisarjevsky Asks to Respond to Petit Family Comments

Cheshire home invasion defendant wants to rebut victims' claim he is "the embodiment of pure evil."

Joshua Komisarjevsky has asked for permission to respond to respond to statements by the Cheshire home invasion victims’ families calling him the "embodiment of pure evil."

The defense motion, which the Hartford Courant said was unsealed Monday in New Haven Superior Court, claims that such statements by Dr. William Petit, the lone survivor of the Cheshire home invasion, and other members of his family are part of "an ongoing public relations campaign" that threatens Komisarjevsky’s right to a fair trial.

Instead, the motion portrays Komisarjevsky as "a damaged human being" who has expressed remorse for the triple homicide in July 2007, in which Petit’s wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and their two daughters, Michaela Petit and Hayley Petit, were murdered.

Find out what's happening in North Branfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Komisarjevsky faces execution by lethal injection if convicted in a trial that is scheduled to begin next month. His co-defendant, Steven Hayes, was convicted last year and given the death penalty.

The defendant and his lawyers are among those restrained by a gag order against making statements to the media until after the trial.

Find out what's happening in North Branfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The motion asks for permission to allow Komisarjevsky or his lawyers to respond specifically to a memoriam on July 23, 2011, the anniversary of the crime, that was published in several newspapers.

The memoriam to the victims said, "Your unrealized potentials were stolen by pure evil without a second thought of remorse." It goes on to make references to Mother Theresa and Mahatma Ghandi.

The defense motion asks to respond by denying that Komisarjevsky is not "pure evil," and that he has expressed remorse for the crime. It also characterizes him as "a damaged human being" who does not deserve to be "judged solely by the worst of his acts."

The response would also assert that Komisarjevsky did not intend to cause the deaths of Hawke-Petit and her daughters and asks to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release.

"Josh wants to accept responsibility for what he has done and to move on, thereby also allowing anyone affected by what occurred that night to at least move on from this process," the motion says.

It also notes that Ghandi and Mother Teresa were death penalty opponents.

The motion refers to other statements, letters to the editor and online commentary by Petit and his relatives, including Hawke-Petit’s mother, fiercely attacking Hayes and Komisarjevsky.

In these statements, which are cited in the motion, they refer to the Cheshire home invasion defendants as "pure evil." Some of the statements were made in the context of the debate in 2009 and 2011 in the state Legislature over the proposed repeal of the death penalty, and others were made during the Hayes trial.

For example, during the Hayes trial, Petit explained his daily attendance to the news media: "I think you’d probably for your family if your family was destroyed by evil."

The circumstances of the crime account for the intensity of the family’s statements. According to police and testimony in the Hayes trial, the defendants broke into the home and beat Petit with a baseball bat. They tied him up in the basement, tied his daughters to their beds, then forced Hawke-Petit to withdraw $15,000 from their bank.

While Hayes went to the bank with the mother, police reports state that Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted 11-year-old Michaela. Then, records show Hayes strangled the mother and the pair then allegedly set fire to the house killing the two girls. Petit, badly hurt, escaped just before they set the fire.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?