The Connecticut Supreme Court will hear arguments Thursday on whether one of two men convicted in a notorious 2007 home invasion and brutal triple-homicide in Cheshire should get a new trial.
Joshua Komisarjevsky claims he was denied his right to a fair and impartial trial.
Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes were convicted of breaking into the suburban home of Dr. William Petit. The family was held hostage for hours. Petit’s wife and younger daughter were sexually assaulted and the home set on fire, killing the mother and two daughters who were 11 and 17 years old. Dr. Petit was beaten, but survived.
The two men were sentenced to death, but then re-sentenced to life in prison after Connecticut abolished the death penalty.
Komisarjevsky’s lawyers are expected to tell the state’s highest court Thursday that extensive pretrial publicity surrounding the Cheshire case prejudiced potential jurors and that the trial should have been held outside of New Haven.
They’re expected to argue the prosecution failed to disclose multiple taped police phone calls and withheld 130 pages of letters written by Hayes, which they say strengthen the theory that Komisarjevsky never intended to kill the victims.
