On Dec. 9, 2011 three and a half years after Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, Hayley Petit, 17, and Michaela Petit, 11, were killed Joshua Komisarjevsky was sentenced to death for the Petit family murders, reopening dialogue about the death penalty in the state of Connecticut.
His accomplice, Steven Hayes, received the death penalty following his conviction in October 2010. However, a bill to repeal the death penalty in Connecticut currently awaiting approval from the state Senate could allow Komisarjevsky and Hayes to appeal their sentences, according to The Connecticut Mirror.
Hayley Petit daughter of William Petit '78, who survived the attack would have matriculated with the Class of 2011. In memory of the Petit tragedy, the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center which opened this past September features a gallery dedicated to the Petit family. The memorial was built with funds raised directly from Petit's classmates.
In October 2011, Komisarjevsky was convicted on 17 charges, including three counts of murder, four counts of kidnapping and charges of burglary, arson and assault against members of the Petit family. Hayes was found guilty of 16 of the same 17 crimes but was acquitted of arson. Six of Komisarjevsky and Hayes' crimes made them eligible to receive the death penalty.
Connecticut has only seen one federal execution since 1960, that of Michael Ross in 2005 for the rape and murder of eight young girls, The New York Times reported. Before Ross, the last man executed in Connecticut was Joseph Taborsky for robbery and murder in May 1960.
Komisarjevsky and Hayes will join nine others in Connecticut currently awaiting lethal injection, the state's method of execution, according to The New York Daily News.
William Petit has been vocal in his support of Connecticut law in favor of the death penalty and praised the June 2009 decision by former Gov. Mary Jodi Rell, R-Conn., to veto a bill that would have abolished it, according to The Hartford Courant.
"Thankfully, Gov. Rell has a sense of what is required to maintain the fabric of our society," Petit told The Courant. "Finally, the victims have a reasonable voice and some consideration over the deluded thinkers who feel that rights should only be accorded to convicted felons. I want to thank Gov. Rell for her moral courage and clarity to stand up for what is right and just with her veto of the bill to abolish the death penalty."
Although Petit lobbied for the death penalty in the years prior to Komisarjevsky and Hayes' trials, he declined to testify during their sentencing periods because of concerns that it could yield grounds for appeal.
The Petit trial's concurrency with the November 2010 Connecticut gubernatorial race brought the morality and legality of the death penalty to the forefront of the election, according to The New York Times.
Tom Foley replaced Rell who decided against running for reelection on the Republican ticket. Foley, a supporter of the death penalty, ran against Dan Malloy, D-Conn., who spoke about his desire to abolish the death penalty during his campaign.
According to a February survey conducted by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, support for the death penalty in Connecticut has risen to 67 percent, up from 59 percent in 2005. The survey also found that 74 percent of those polled support the death penalty in the Petit case.
Despite Malloy's opposition to the death penalty, he was elected governor on Nov. 9, 2010 the same day that jurists announced their decision to sentence Hayes to death.
In April 2011, the state legislature's Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would abolish the death penalty for future crimes, according to The Connecticut Mirror.
The bill died in the Connecticut General Assembly in May 2011 when several senators decided not to support the repeal of the death penalty after talks with William Petit, according to The Connecticut Mirror. The General Assembly may vote on the bill in the next session in 2012, The Connecticut Mirror reported.
Although the bill would have applied only to future cases, Chief Public Defender Susan Storey and Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane said that if the bill became law, it would be unlikely that those currently sitting on death row would be put to death, according to The Day, a Connecticut-based news source.
Malloy, however, did not agree with Storey and Kane's assessment, citing the current inadequacies of the death sentence in Connecticut.
"I'm not sure I agree with that," he told The Day. "Would people appeal on that basis? Of course. But they're appealing on every basis. That's why we have two people on death row who have been on death row for more than 20 years."
Following Hayes' sentencing, Petit told reporters that he believed the jury's decision was just, but nothing could alleviate his suffering, according to The New York Daily News.
"There's never closure," Petit told The New York Daily News. "There's a hole. There's a hole with jagged edges. Over time, the edges may smooth out, but the hole in your heart and the hole in your soul is always there."
The jury foreman, Ian Cassell, said in an interview with The New York Times that the trial weighed heavily on every juror and the verdict left an overwhelming sense of loss.
"All the jurors were really emotional," he said. "No one is happy. Nothing is better. Nothing is solved."
The gallery in the LCS features various works of art created by members of the Dartmouth community, with a quilt entitled "The Spirit of Dartmouth" serving as the focal point of the exhibit.
The Petit home was invaded around 3 a.m. on July 23, 2007. Hawke-Petit was forced to drive to and withdraw $15,000 from a local bank, where she was able to notify an employee that her family was being held hostage.
Upon arriving on the scene at the Petits' home, a police officer found the house burning. Komisarjevsky and Hayes attempted to flee and hit the first officer's car before crashing into the two police cars set up by other officers as a roadblock.
