NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A Connecticut jury has begun deliberating whether a man convicted of killing a woman and her two daughters in a home invasion should get the death penalty or life in prison.
The jury started deliberating Monday afternoon in the sentencing phase of Joshua Komisarjevsky's trial in New Haven Superior Court. The jury elected a forewoman earlier.
Komisarjevsky and co-defendant Steven Hayes were convicted of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley and Michaela, at their Cheshire home in 2007. Hayes is on death row.
Defense attorneys say Komisarjevsky should not be condemned to death, because he was sexually abused as a child and never got proper psychological help. Prosecutors cite the heinous and cruel nature of the crime.