Death Sentences For Depraved 2007 Connecticut Multiple Rape, Murder, Arson Convictions Revoked

Victims: Dr. William Petit (left) said it's an 'insult' that Hayes, who raped and murdered his wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit (right) and killed daughters Michaela (center-bottom), 11, and Hayley (center-top), 17, won't be executed.

[From article]
The Connecticut man who lost his wife and daughters in a brutal home invasion in 2007 said Wednesday it was 'sad' one of the killers had his death sentence revoked to comply with new state laws.
Dr. William Petit was tied up in the basement of his New Haven home during the July 23, 2007 attack and almost beaten to death. He could only listen as his wife was raped and murdered by Steven Hayes. Petit managed to flee to a neighbor's home as his daughters perished in the fire Hayes lit.
'It is a very sad day when a prolonged trial and decision and sentencing by a jury that took 4.5 months to seat is overturned by a legislature that ignores the wishes of the people of CT,' he said in a text message via Twitter on Wednesday.
He added: 'The insult is compounded by a Supreme Court that rules on not one but 2 cases based on personal opinions and politics and not the law.'

Tragic: Wolfe-Petit was taken to a bank to withdraw money for the robbers before her murder, while her daughters were tied to their beds. She told the cashier to call the police, but they arrived too late.

Hayes was sentenced to death in 2010 after being convicted of murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree sexual assault and 13 other counts.
Co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky was also sentenced to death in 2011.
But in 2012 the Connecticut House of Representatives voted to repeal capital punishment, stopping it from being handed out in future cases.
Originally, the 11 people on death row - including Hayes and Komisarjevsky - were still to face execution.
But in August last year that was deemed to be 'cruel and unusual punishment' and their death sentences were commuted.
Hayes's trial, which ended Wednesday is the first in a series deciding what will be done with those men. Komisarjevsky and the other nine men who were on death row have yet to face theirs.
Petit and his family declined to make a statement in court, saying they had already said what needed to be said during the trial, as did Hayes and his public defender Thomas Ullmann.
Superior Court judge Jon C. Blue concluded: 'With the gravity of these crimes and the depravity of your character, nothing more needs to be said.'
He then handed down six consecutive sentences of life without possibility of parole, followed by a total of 106 years for Hayes's crimes.
Hayes and Komisarjevsky committed their crimes in July 2007, when a home-invasion robbery spiraled into a nightmarish litany of rape, child abuse and murder.
The pair forced their way into Petit's home and beat him badly with a baseball bat before tying him up in the basement of his house, which he shared with his wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and their daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11.
The pair demanded money from Petit, then 50, and ransacked his home - but when they found a banking book with $30,000 in it, they changed their mind.
Instead, they decided they would take Hawke-Petit to a bank, and force her to withdraw $15,000. She did, and told the teller what was happening.
But the police did not arrive in time for what happened next.
Once back home, Hayes raped Hawke-Petit, then strangled her to death. Petit, still tied up in the basement, could only listen.
When he heard one of the men say that it 'it will all be over soon,' Petit realized that they were all going to be killed and managed to break the bonds on his hands - but not those on his feet - and crawl to his neighbor's house.
The doctor was so bloodied and disfigured by his beating that his neighbor of 18 years didn't even recognize him at first.


Horror: Hayes and friend Joshua Komisarjevsky raided the Petits' home (pictured after the invasion) in July 2007. They tied Petit up in the basement, then Hayes raped Hawke-Petit before strangling her to death.

As Petit was crawling to safety, his daughters were suffering. They had been tied to their beds, with pillowcases placed over their heads.
Komisarjevsky raped 11-year-old Michaela - he later told authorities he thought she was 16 or 17 - and then Hayes splashed gasoline around the house and set it ablaze.
In journal entries read in court during the trial, Komisarjevsky wrote that he 'resented' the idea that people believe he raped Michaela, but admitting he did sexually assault her and then 'ejaculated onto her' in a 'vulgar display of power.'
He also took photos of her after the assault.
Hayley was able to free herself, but died in the hallway due to the superheated fumes. Michaela's body was found on her bed. It could not be determined how she died.
The suspects then fled the house, ramming through a police barricade with the Petits' vehicle, before being apprehended.
Facing the prospect of execution in 2013, Hayes told The New Haven Register: 'Death for me will be a welcome relief and I hope it will bring some peace and comfort to those who I have hurt so much.'
[. . .]
Since the deaths of his daughters and wife in 2007, Petit has remarried. He and his wife Christine had a son, William Petit III, in 2013.
But he has said he will never come to terms with the loss of his first family.
[. . .]
In May he began a run for state legislature.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3644078/Connecticut-man-listen-wife-raped-killed-daughters-burned-alive-says-s-sad-killer-death-sentence-commuted-new-state-laws.html

'It's an insult': Disbelief of William Petit who was forced to listen to wife being raped and killed and his daughters burned alive as Connecticut court overturns killer's execution because it's 'cruel'
Steve Hayes was convicted on 16 counts, including murder, in 2010
He was put on death row, but in 2012 Connecticut revoked its death penalty
And in 2015 he and ten others had their death sentences commuted
Now he's been sentenced to six life sentences plus 106 years in prison
In 2007 Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky invaded the Petit home
Dr. William Petit was tied up in his basement while Hayes raped his wife
He then strangled her to death while Komisarjevsky raped Michaela, 11
Michaela and sister Hayley, 17, were tied to beds while the house burned
Dr. Petit was nearly beaten to death but managed to escape to a neighbor's home but his daughters died
Komisarjevsky and nine others on death row have yet to be re-sentenced
By JAMES WILKINSON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 21:47 EST, 15 June 2016 | UPDATED: 06:32 EST, 16 June 2016

How To Replace Failed Health Care Law

[From article]
Republicans should ask four basic questions about each health care reform idea: Is it constitutional? Is it necessary? Is it affordable? Will it work? That is, will it reduce health care costs and thus the number of uninsured Americans? Only proposals with a "yes" next to all four questions should make the cut.
[. . .]
1. Don't pass a 2,000-page bill no one has read.
Instead, follow regular order. Move multiple bills. Permit lots of time to read them. Allow plenty of amendments. Legislate.
2. Don't focus on covering the uninsured.
Focus instead on reducing health care costs.
[. . .]



Half the U.S. population gets its health benefits through the workplace, thanks to generous federal tax subsidies created in the 1940s.
[. . .]
the Tenth Amendment leaves health insurance regulation to the states,
[. . .]
In America, health insurance should be voluntary.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/01/obamacare_replacement_made_easy.html

January 20, 2016
Obamacare Replacement Made Easy
By Dean Clancy

Yale Students Eagerly Sign Petition To Repeal First Amendment. Is Dumbing Down Complete Yet?

[From article]
Looking to understand just how controversial the debate over free speech on our college campuses really is, filmmaker and satirist Ami Horowitz recently traveled to Yale University, one of our nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning, to speak directly to students.
“I decided to take this campus free speech debate to its logical conclusion,” said Horowitz, who asked students if they’d sign a petition calling for an outright repeal of the First Amendment. “The result was this unbelievable display of total stupidity.”
In fact, Horowitz discovered a solid majority of the students asked willingly signed the petition, with several expressing their enthusiastic approval for his anti-First Amendment efforts.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/12/16/yale-fail-ivy-leaguers-caught-on-video-clamoring-to-kill-first-amendment/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fmost-popular+%28Internal+-+Most+Popular+Content%29

Yale fail: Ivy leaguers sign 'petition' to repeal First Amendment
Published December 16, 2015

FoxNews.com

* * *

Horowitz says in another exchange with a different student: ''Cause you shouldn't be exposed to things you don't want to hear. You know, that's not right.' 'Yeah,' the female student he's speaking with says.

[From article]

Fox News, which featured the video on its website, described Horowitz as a 'filmmaker and satirist.'
In voice-over narration, Horowitz explains 'Just as a reminder, the First Amendment protects the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press -- and oh yeah, freedom of petition.'
A male student tells Horowitz in the video 'I think this is fantastic. I absolutely agree.'
'Excellent. Love it,' another woman says in the clip.
In one exchange with a student, Horowitz says ''Cause I think it's a living, breathing document, the Constitution, it was literally not made in stone.
'And the guys who wrote it - they were slave owners.
'What do they know about how we live today?
'So we want to change it.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3363482/Video-shows-Yale-University-students-signing-petition-calling-Amendment-Constitution-repealed.html

America's brightest? Comedian gets Yale University students to sign petition for the First Amendment to be repealed
Ami Horowitz appears in the footage, speaking with students on campus and asking for their signatures
The students' faces have been blurred out
Horowitz claims in the video to have gotten more than 50 signatures in under one hour for the measure
By ZOE SZATHMARY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 22:25 EST, 16 December 2015 | UPDATED: 01:01 EST, 17 December 2015

Former US Senator Tom Coburn, Others Promote Convention of States Under Article Five of US Constitution

Former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)
[From article]
Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, two-thirds of the state legislatures can call a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution that limit the scope and jurisdiction of the federal government.
Alaska, Florida and Georgia passed Article V resolutions last year. Two dozen other states are also considering that option.
On January 6, the House of Representatives passed House Rule XII, Section 3(c) ordering the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to keep track of all Article V Convention applications and have the Clerk’s Office make them “publicly available in electronic form, organized by State of origin and year of receipt.”
[. . .]



I identified $400 billion of waste, fraud and duplication, but none of it was eliminated. Nobody had the courage to eliminate it. And that’s why we need a Convention of the States: to diminish the power of the federal government.
“The CBO [Congressional Budget Office] and OMB [Office of Management and Budget] are not using real numbers and are not telling Americans the truth,” Coburn continued.
“We have $144 trillion in unfunded liabilities and we’re $18 trillion in debt. When you divide that by the population, it’s more than $500,000 for each American, which nobody has,” he said.
[. . .]
“I’ve been in Washington for 16 years, when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, when Democrats controlled Congress, and every combination in between. There is no difference. There’s no difference,” he emphasized.
No matter which party was in charge, the federal government continued to grow and Americans’ liberty continued to diminish, he pointed out.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/coburn-convention-states-needed-because-washington-will-never-fix

Coburn: Convention of States Needed Because Washington Will Never Fix Itself
March 5, 2015 - 12:49 PM
By Barbara Hollingsworth

Washington DC City Council Repeals Religious Exemption

[From article]
The impact of the repeal is likely to be broad, since the city’s Human Rights Act will prohibit religious schools from acting in accordance with their beliefs regarding sexual morality in decisions related to funding, facilities, campus organizations, benefits, etc. The schools cannot even withhold “endorsement, approval or recognition” of those promoting messages at odds with the religious teachings of the school about appropriate sexual conduct.
While other states have been acting to protect religious liberties, D.C. is trying to narrow the permissible decisions and even speech of religious schools. It is a warning that carefully constructed compromises on anti-discrimination bills are only temporary.
Congress should immediately act to restore this basic, narrow limitation on the power of D.C. to interfere with the teachings and practices of religious schools.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/394106/dc-council-religious-schools-must-adopt-its-views-sexual-morality-william-c-duncan

D.C. Council: Religious Schools Must Adopt Its Views on Sexual Morality
By William C. Duncan & Michael T. Worley
National Review
December 5, 2014 4:47 PM

Democratic Oregon Voters Repeal Law Giving Drivers Licenses To Illegal Immigrants

[From article]
Even as Oregon voters were legalizing recreational marijuana and expanding Democratic majorities in state government, they decided by a margin of 66-34 to cancel a new state law that would have provided driver's licenses to people who are in the United States illegally.
[. . .]
The state law had seemed to be popular. It easily passed last year with bipartisan support in the Democratic-controlled Legislature and was signed Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber, who was re-elected Nov. 4.
Opponents barely gathered enough signatures to put the repeal question on the ballot. Immigrant rights groups outspent their opponents 10-1.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20141116/us-immigration-oregon-3fe495c4ab.html

Oregon immigration vote is a warning for Obama
Nov 16, 8:40 AM (ET)
By JONATHAN J. COOPER and NICHOLAS RICCARDI

Repeal Automatic MA Gas Tax Increase

[From article]
The biggest source of anti-Question 1 funds is something called Mass. Aggregate and Asphalt Paving. They’ve poured (get it?) $100,000 into the campaign. Mass. Aggregate’s members include Oxford Asphalt, Hudson Liquid Asphalt, NuStar Asphalt Refining, Ambrose Asphalt Equipment, Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Seacoast Asphalt Services ...
Key word: asphalt.
The unstated rationale behind this outrageous proposal couldn’t be any more cynical. An annual automatic tax hike will free the Legislature from having to take a vote on a controversial issue that might lead to the corrupt hacks on Beacon Hill actually facing a challenger in the next election.
[. . .]
As usual, the taxpayers are being outspent by the kleptocrats who’ve grown fat off their earlier ripoffs of the productive citizens they’re now trying to rob again. Tankthegastax.org has $5,000, compared to $653,000 for the Save the Hack Jobs Coalition.
You can’t say you weren’t warned. Vote Yes on Question 1.

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2014/09/carr_shut_off_the_pump

Carr: Shut off the pump
Sunday, September 21, 2014
By: Howie Carr
Boston Herald

Cambridge Weakly Editors Want More Clemency

Editors state, "the U.S. government is waking up to the realization that it cannot jail its way out of a drug problem." (EDITORIAL: "Facing up to the failed War on Drugs," May 10, 2014, CAMBRIDGE Chronicle) Yes, but government policy makers still believe it can jail its way out of it's troubled persons problem, by jailing any and all persons they do not like or do not understand. Some believe that persons they do not trust should be jailed too. These are the people that they say are "crazy." If drug dealers and users will no longer be jailed someone has to fill the empty cells. Ready and waiting are the crazy people. Do the editors suggest disbanding prison guard unions? Who will fund the luxurious lifestyles of union leaders? And then there are the prison guards themselves, who will be unemployed. No way, Jose. Bring on the crazies to keep the cells filled. Best of all Due Process is unnecessary to incarcerate crazy people. 

The editorial notes "Congress, locked in dysfunction, hasn't [. . .] done anything else toward meaningful drug reform." Is it dysfunction that prevents them from acting? Or is it opposition to legalizing recreational drugs? Are there no downsides to legalizing marijuana? Perhaps US Congressmen are not "cool." Maybe they have different (elderly) ideas than the editors and the lawless Obama-Holder team. If the majority of the population wants to legalize murder for offensive speech should Congress make it legal?

The editors celebrate clemency and encourage the lawless Obama-Holder leadership to increase its use. They say, "More than half of Americans favor legalizing marijuana. And the issue is increasingly a bipartisan affair." Oh? More than half of Americans oppose Obamacare and want it repealed. Do the editors support repealing that too?

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140510/NEWS/140519940

EDITORIAL: Facing up to the failed War on Drugs
Posted May. 10, 2014 @ 12:17 pm
CAMBRIDGE Chroncile

Defunding Obamacare

[From article}
It just doesn’t make sense to insist on a goal (defunding the Affordable Care Act) that you know in advance is unattainable. And you don’t issue a threat (we will keep the federal government shut down unless and until ObamaCare is defunded) that in the end you can’t deliver on–and which your opponents know you can’t deliver on. That lesson seems to have been lost on Messrs. Lee, Cruz, Paul, and Rubio. Thankfully it hasn’t been lost on their colleagues, who have no interest in joining the Suicide Caucus.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/08/01/the-suicide-caucus/

The Suicide Caucus
Peter Wehner | @Peter_Wehner
08.01.2013 - 10:55 AM

Republicans Have Plan To Repeal Obamacare

http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/the-secret-republican-plan-to-repeal-obamacare-20130327

The Secret Republican Plan to Repeal 'Obamacare'
And why the fight is far from over.
National Journal
By Chris Frates
Updated: March 28, 2013 | 6:09 p.m.
March 27, 2013 | 7:30 p.m.

Reconciliation Can be Used to Repeal Obamacare

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/280274/reconciliation-option-james-c-capretta?pg=1


James C. Capretta
October 18, 2011 4:00 A.M.
The Reconciliation Option
The way forward for repealing and replacing Obamacare becomes clearer.
National Review

Obama and Health Care

[From article]

"If everything, pro and con, has been said about the subject, by everybody, that means someone isn't telling the truth, right? I mean, if you've said X and not-X, that means you've probably said something that isn't true.[. . .]
the Democrats' plan is unpopular, period. [. . .]
That hasn't stopped him from talking out of every side of his mouth.[. . .]
if ObamaCare passes, Republicans will run on a promise to repeal it,"

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/health_reform_hell_3OfIhTeLqd04OZZJbC5oeI

Health-reform hell
It's never going to be over
New York Post
Last Updated: 8:52 AM, March 12, 2010
Posted: 1:40 AM, March 12, 2010
Jonah Goldberg