Death row inmate to be resentenced
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut man sentenced to death by lethal injection for the killings of a woman and her two daughters during a 2007 home invasion is expected to be resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole because the state abolished the death penalty.
A state judge in New Haven is scheduled to resentence Joshua Komisarjevsky today.
He would be the third death row inmate to have his sentence changed to life in prison since the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled last year that the death penalty violated the state constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Eight other condemned inmates await resentencing.
Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes were sentenced to death for the murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters in Cheshire. Hawke-Petit is a Butler County native who spent her elementary school years in Slippery Rock. Her parents are the Rev. Richard and Marybelle Hake.
Hayes was resentenced to life in prison last month.
