The paperwork, the appeals, and all of the preparations for the execution of these 11 men have been halted indefinitely. For now, they will remain alone and isolated in 8-by-12-foot cells while they wait to see if the state will move them somewhere else to live out the rest of their natural lives, according to a statement from the Connecticut Department of Correction.
Connecticut lawmakers abolished the death penalty in 2012, but the ruling did not spare the lives of the 11 men in the state had already sentenced to die. Some lawmakers refused to sign on to the new law unless they could ensure that Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky—the two men who were convicted of raping, assaulting, and burning to death a woman and her two daughters in the family’s suburban home—would still be killed by the state.
Now, the families of the Cheshire murder victims are upset with the recent ruling sparing Hayes’s and Komisarjevsky’s lives.
“I really think when you do such a horrific crime like raping women and their children and dousing them with gasoline while they are still alive… I’m sorry, but I really think that deserves more than life in prison,” said Cindy Hawke-Renn.
Cindy is the sister of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, who was murdered, along with her 11-year old daughter Michaela and 17-year-old daughter Haley, as their husband was forced to watch.
“For what I thought was one of the worst crimes I’ve ever known, I wanted it to have the worst punishment that exists,” she told The Daily Beast.
In a statement, William Petit, husband of Jennifer and the sole survivor of the crime, thanked the dissenting judges for recognizing the “devastating impact” the ruling has on the families of the victims. Petit had lobbied to ensure that those sentenced to death would still be executed.
The Cheshire Murders were one of the most notorious crimes in Connecticut history. Komisarjevsky had followed Jennifer and Michaela home from a grocery story. Once Komisarjevsky located his target, he texted Hayes about the plan to rob the family.
“I’m chomping at the bit to get started,” Hayes texted back, according to CBS. “I need a margarita soon.”
Komisarjevsky replied that he had to look after his own 5-year-old daughter first.
“I’m putting the kid to bed,” said Komersarjevsky. “Hold your horses.”
“Dude, the horses want to get loose. Lol,” replied Hayes.
Early the next morning Hayes and Komersarjevsky found William Petit asleep on the front porch. First, they beat him and tied him up. Then they tied up his wife and children.
After scouring the house, Hayes and Komersarjevsky decided they weren’t satisfied with their haul. Hayes took Jennifer to the bank to take out $15,000, while Komersarjevsky raped the 11-year old. When Hayes returned, he raped Jennifer.
The two then lit the house on fire with the family inside. Only William Petit survived.
Hayes and Komersarjevsky are two of the four murderer-rapists who have escaped execution in this recent ruling. The 11 men on death row also include two men convicted in domestic murders, one man who killed a cop, a man who smashed in the head of a 13-year old because he was curious about what it would feel like to kill, and another man sentenced to death for directing his brother to kill a woman and her 8-year-old son.
The case that invariably stopped the executions of the 11 men was brought to the court by lawyers for Eduardo Santiago, a man convicted in a murder-for-hire scheme for which he shot a man in the head in exchange for a broken snowblower and relief from his credit card debt.
In a strongly worded condemnation of the punishment, the Connecticut justices called the death penalty “cruel and unusual,” noted that it disproportionately targets “people of color and other disadvantaged groups,” and added that it “fails to satisfy any legitimate penological purpose.”
Of the 11 men on Connecticut’s death row, three men—including Hayes and Komersarjevsky—were victims of rape as children, according to psychologists who testified in their trials.
Even before the 2007 attacks, Hayes had made several attempts to take his own life.
“Death, to me, will be a welcome relief,” he told the court in 2010 when he learned he was facing the death penalty.
Once in prison, he told authorities he was involved in 17 other murders, but would only speak if they gave him oysters. Hayes is deathly allergic to shellfish. His plot ultimately failed.
Hayes’s lawyer, Thomas Ullman, told The Daily Beast that when the verdict was handed down, Hayes was the one comforting him.
The ruling may be a mixed bag for Sedrick “Ricky” Cobb, as well. Cobb is convicted of kidnapping, raping, and murdering 23-year-old Julia Ashe, before watching her drown in an icy dam.
“I made my peace with God. Let’s go,” Cobb told the court, frustrated that his lawyers kept insisting they attempt to save his life.
But Ullman, his lawyer, is ecstatic.
“I was thrilled and relieved by the decision,” said the public defender, who was vacation in the Adirondacks. Ullman said he hasn’t spoken to Hayes yet, but he will visit him soon.
Ullman says the death penalty is “barbaric,” and is grateful that lawyers in Connecticut will be relieved of the “awesome responsibility” of defending people “the government is trying to kill.”
In a strongly worded condemnation of the punishment, the Connecticut justices called the death penalty “cruel and unusual,” noted that it disproportionately targets “people of color and other disadvantaged groups,” and added that it “fails to satisfy any legitimate penological purpose.”
“I’m just glad it’s done with. We put it to bed,” says Ullman.
Daniel Webb, who has maintained his innocence in the assault and murder of 37-year-old National Bank Vice President Diane Gellenback, is likely even more relieved. Webb was 17 at the time of the murder. After the death penalty was abolished in 2012, he said he was frustrated with the impact the Cheshire murders were having on his own life.
“Dr. Petit is angry with them and with his anger he wants to kill all of us,” he told the Associated Press. “Now you are trying to increase my suffering and take away the little that I had because you want to make Komisarjevsky suffer. That’s not right.”
Connecticut is one of 19 states that have abolished the death penalty.
“If you are going to abolish the death penalty, abolish the death penalty,” he said. “I don’t think you can have a law that has double standards. Abolish means abolish, doesn’t it?”
Ullman says Hayes’s daughter, Alicia, who was 15 at the time of the killings and now is a technician in the U.S. Air Force, is against the death penalty too.
“He would take me to the park or to the movies,” she told People of her father in 2013. “If I wanted ice cream, he was right there to get it for me. When we would cross the street, he would take my hand to keep me safe. He was always good to me. That’s what made this so hard for me to comprehend. He never showed that side to me.”
“Obviously, the Petit family suffered more than I can imagine, and I would never compare their loss with mine. But when someone does something like what [my father] did, his family suffers, too.”
But for Cindy Hawke-Renn, that her sister and nieces’ killers will spend the rest of their lives in state care is enraging. Hawke-Renn is a preschool teacher who lives in North Carolina. She says her husband was recently diagnosed with cancer and that she suffered financially when she took time off work to attend the lengthy trial, including the sentencing phase.
It upsets her that Hayes and Komisarjevsky have health care when she can’t afford insurance for her children.
“They took the most precious things away from me that they could have taken and they changed my life forever,” she said. “Every holiday—every time you think of extended family—I don’t have one any more.”
Hawke-Renn says he hopes that the murderers will spend their newfound time thinking hard about what they’ve done.
“I would hope that they would be doing a lot of soul searching and trying to figure out who they are.”