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Politics & Government

Lawyers Use More Peremptory Challenges in Komisarjevsky Jury Selection

Defense lawyers have used up 12 of their 40 juror challenges.

More peremptory challenges Tuesday to excuse individuals from the jury that will decide the fate of Joshua Komisarjevsky later this year.

A source in the courtroom said defense lawyers for the Cheshire home invasion defendant used two peremptory challenges and prosecutors used one.

That raises the totals to 12 challenges used by the defense and seven by prosecutors, out of 40 allotted to each side.

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Peremptory challenges may be used by trial lawyers to keep an individual off a jury without giving a reason.

In a talk last week in Woodbridge, Chief Public Defender for New Haven Thomas Ullmann said he wondered if he erred last year when he only used 30 peremptory challenges while picking a jury for the other Cheshire home invasion co-defendant, Steven Hayes.

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Hayes, 47, was convicted and is now facing the death penalty.

Komisarjevsky also faces the death penalty for the triple homicide in 2007 of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters.

The Hartford Courant reported that the lawyers picked a fourth juror on Monday. She is a physician who lives in Madison, the newspaper said.

The lawyers must choose 12 jurors, six alternates and three backup alternates for the trial, which is scheduled to start in September.

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