Justice Matters: Why Connecticut needs the Death Penalty

Conservative Activism call to Action!

There are a lot of reasons for the average Connecticut resident to be angry with our new Governor - Dannel Malloy.   If you're already upset about his plans to install tollbooth barricades on every state highway, or regulate our remaining businesses right of out state, or increase taxes on everything you do, buy, see, and earn,  then perhaps this next story might really light you afire with rage.

Dr. Petit & his beautiful family
Taken circa 2006 at Harwich MA

For many months, we've all been following the horrific story of the Cheshire Home Invasion, where lurking in the shadows, one summer evening in 2007, two soulless cowards - Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky perpetrated one of the most heinous crimes in Connecticut's history.  (It's not necessary to go into further details here, they are available online for anyone not familiar with the case.) This is a story that haunts us all, particularly those of us with families, and children.

Last year, during one hotly contest televised Gubernatorial debate, Republican candidate Tom Foley asked then-candidate Democrat Dan Malloy about his commitment to abolish the Death Penalty.  As you'll recall, Malloy gave a cowardly answer by insisting that if the jury passed a death sentence on Hayes and Komisarjevsky that he wouldn't stop that decision from being carried out, but he also said that he would immediately sign a bill to abolish the Death Penalty should one come to his desk.  While I appreciate Tom Foley raising the issue, I was disappointed that he didn't follow through with more vigor about Malloy's commitment to abolish the death penalty despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of Connecticut residents support it.  And I would have liked to see Foley press Malloy on the negative implications repeal would have on families of victims, and anyone wishing to see justice prevail.  

Malloy's soft answer that his stance on the Death Penalty was merely a personal decision should have been rebutted sternly.  Foley should have pointed out that Malloy's position was hardly just a personal opinion, but as a potential future head of Connecticut's Government (which includes his ability to appoint judges) its was rather -  a major public policy decision that would have implications for all of us for years to come.  Furthermore, the opportunity to illustrate to voters the flawed thinking of this alleged, big-time New York prosecutor was ripe for exposure.  How many successful prosecutors do you know that make a career out of cuddling villains, and leave victims out in the cold?

Fast forward to the present day.  Well, what's done is done.  And now we have another battle on our hands.

With Malloy winning in November, it didn't take long for his liberal friends to dust off their 2009 playbook, and re-set their scheme in motion to repeal the death penalty.  Sitting before the Statehouse is  H.B. 5036. which if passed would abolish the death penalty and replace it with a life sentence without parole.  The next step to move this bill to a vote is the plan to hold a public hearing  on H.B 5036 scheduled for March 7, 2011 at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.

I would urge anyone interested in speaking out in favor of the Death Penalty to attend the public hearing and speak out against repeal.  And at minimum, contact your local State Representative and State Senator and urge them to help defeat HB 5036.  Activist support of the anti-Death Penalty bill is being led by the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty (CNADP) led by liberal activist Ben Jones.  CNADP is gearing up their speakers to attend the hearing with many twisted sob stories using families of both victims and those who have been executed.  Many of these people are being mentally manipulated into siding with anti-death penalty advocates; this in itself is a tragedy at another level. It is vital that ordinary taxpayers participate in this debate and show the Statehouse that the public doesn't accept their overreaching on judicial matters.


It's also critical point for pro-death penalty advocates to note that some Universities including Yale University are organizing their little brainwashed-Marxist students to be bussed from campuses around the State to attend the hearing, and rally at the LOB. 

The anti-death penalty crowd bases its position upon their belief the death penalty is "cruel and unusual punishment" which of course make little sense to anyone other than a liberal activist since dozens have been executed for similar crimes -  including murder since Connecticut's Incorporation into the Union.  The actual history easily contradicts the claim that its unusual since its been in practice since 1789, or that it's cruel since courtrooms around the Nation (including our own Federal Government) have found the carrying out of death sentences quite just and reasonable for certain offenses including treason and murder (military tribunals included).

And ironically, I find it simply amazing that when it comes to this single issue, suddenly liberal democrats become fiscal conservatives!  They hem and haw about the yearly $4 million dollar price tag on court processes.  It's amazing how in this very limited, specific circumstance that liberal Democrats beat their chests about reducing state spending whereas, at any other time, they won't entertain a single cut in any other part of the budget.  Only warped thinking would try to find savings by keeping the most evil of human beings alive, and selling out victims.  Talk about twisted thinking! 


Perhaps if Democrats looked at reforming the Connecticut Statutes - and reducing internal costs, red tape, the number of filings, inclusion of phony experts,  and removing all of the other costly components which drag out even a single case for as long as three or four years, and for ten years after a guilty verdict - then perhaps the cost wouldn't be so prohibitive. And perhaps if criminal rights weren't the only time liberals find relevance in the Constitution, we might even take a portion of their opinions seriously.

I recognize that I've used the recent Chesire Home Invasion as a linchpin in my argument for retaining the death penalty, but I don't want people to get too caught up in using this case as the sole reason for supporting the death penalty, or to use it as the standard for implementing the death penalty.

There are now eleven people on Connecticut's death row, and others who are awaiting trial for similar murders that occurred here.  I believe that all of these sickening creeps deserve to be put down for their crimes.  I disagree that the standard of how someone was murdered, or the number of murders committed should determine whether or not a villain is eligible for the death penalty at the time of sentencing.  If this happened to me or my family, I wouldn't want someone implying that they way my loved was murdered didn't meet some liberal's threshold for what is heinous enough for getting what they deserve.

I want to end by delivering a fair warning.  As you know, the Steven Hayes case had the successful outcome that we all had hoped for - a guilty verdict, along with the sentencing of death.  But that decision is only Act 1 in what is likely to be a long drawn out drama.  We are now in Act 2 featuring Joshua Komisarjevsky, who in all likelihood was the mastermind behind the Petit murders.  His attorney, Jeremiah Donvovan, is doing everything in his power to obstruct, defer, deflect, and hamper the judicial process - which in part is being done to lay the foundation of appeal, and to aide his anti-death penalty friends in their quest to repeal the death penalty.

If Democrats can muster enough votes to repeal the death penalty, it will likely trigger an avalanche of special appeals for the eleven monsters on death row.  Further, despite that Malloy and others claim that the repeal of the death penalty would not impact previous cases, its hard for anyone of sound judgement to believe that a very liberal, activist Connecticut judiciary would not legislate from Committee and find legal loopholes to overturn the will of the people, thus sparing the eleven murderers from the sentence they so justly deserve.  And as far as Joshua Komisarjevsky and his twisted attorneys are concerned, they are banking on the Legislature and Governor to quickly repeal the death penalty, in order fast track their client from death.

Moreover, liberal activists would very quickly seize the opportunity to find some degree of unconstitutionality in the notion that Steven Hayes is scheduled for death, and his co-conspirator, Komisarjevsky would not be eligible for the same sentencing for the same crime committed in the same case.

The bottom line is that there is a lot for Connecticut residents to be concerned with.  I know conservative activists are running on fumes from a dreadful 2010 election, working on 2011 special elections, fighting the onslaught of Malloy tax increases, and now I'm asking you to spread out even further and fight to help keep the death penalty on the table.  I know its a mental and physical drain.  But if its going to be, its up to us to do the fighting and this battle is absolutely worth fighting for.  Allowing villains everywhere to know that there is not going to be a free pass for committing felony rape and murder in Connecticut is worth going to war over.

Please join this fight.  Please help people like the Petit-Chapman family who have endured the pain of the the last 3 years, and likely the next several years of the appeal process, and show them that their personal sacrifices to see justice through have not been in vain. Please, I ask that Connecticut residents stand with them, and all past and future victims of heinous crimes. Let's not allow the will of liberal activists to win another battle for the soul of mankind. 

This original blog post can be found at http://www.thekingsview.blogspot.com/