Death row inmate convicted of Conn. slayings resentenced to life

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- One of two men sentenced to death for the slayings of a mother and her two daughters during a 2007 home invasion in a wealthy suburb was resentenced Wednesday to life in prison.

Steven Hayes is the first of 11 death row inmates to be resentenced since the state Supreme Court ruled in August that their sentences violated the state constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment and was out of step with contemporary standards of decency.

The court reaffirmed that ruling last month in considering a 2012 law passed by Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the Democrat-controlled legislature that abolished the death penalty for future cases.

Malloy and the legislature had insisted on that as a condition of their support for repeal in a long-running debate that focused on the Cheshire home invasion. The law left 11 men, including Hayes, still facing execution.

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Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/death-row-inmate-convicted-of-connecticut-slayings-resentenced-to-life/

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AP June 15, 2016, 8:58 PM

[metroins]

1. Good.

I can't support state authorized premeditated murder and that's what the death penalty is.

I don't care what you did, it's not the right of the state to do it.

If the victims family did premeditated murder, I wouldn't convict them or really judge but our government shouldn't be strapping people to tables and ending their lives.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. He'll be forgotten about and die a lonely man in prison, as he should.

And that's no less justice than going through a sham of an execution process that doesn't accomplish anything that letting him rot for decades will.

[Corgigal]

3. Everyone on DU

Is so much nicer then me. This crime, specifically, is the one where I have no problem with the death penalty. He drove the wife to the bank, waited in the car for her, as she begged for her girls life, raped her then strangled her.

Nope, he shouldn't be here. Never....

[marble falls]

4. The death penaly is not right or wrong from case to case, its wrong because its always ...

wrong, the same way any murder is always wrong. Having it on the books doesn't get to everyone who "deserves it", and does get it to some who plainly don't deserve it including innocent prisoners.

The fact that almost everyone can point to a "poster child" who really deserves it shows there is no way to apply it fairly in a non discriminatory way with any sort of justice derived for society.

[Corgigal]

5. Youre right

I just know the husband, who lost his wife and both children wanted that sentenced. No, it doesn't excuse how I feel, but this for me personally, is the one that I could say yep. You almost couldn't get more innocent victims.

However, it doesn't matter. It's been changed, and he will just rot away somewhere. Even his family doesn't want his behind.

[marble falls]

6. I believe in victim impact statements as part of the procedure and records of justice ...

but we have to be watchful of allowing an extremely biased and result interested victim from contributing to the system of justice. The cold unbiased effect we try to rend out of the system is trying to get justice for all of society including the families and the perpetrators and for the future, to test and prove and continue past justice already on record.

There is no justice on this world for the dead. And no way to accomplish it if there were. Its more about guaranteeing some security from our social systems and showing a consistent result for all members of society. It requires victims to recuse themselves from the function of justice regardless how compelling the survivors may be in the media.

Its tough. But its about having a non partisan, open, regular functioning of justice for all society.

Ironically, my concern is: will there be as much interest in exonerating innocent prisoners once they no longer face the death penalty?

[MillennialDem]

8. This is how I feel but you said it so elegantly I must commend you.

[NaturalHigh]

7. Now throw his ass out into the general prison population.

He might find that he preferred death row.

[marble falls]

9. Throw him into general pop because who can better effect justice in our name than criminals, right?

What's wrong with a little unconstitutional extrajudicial punishment? Maybe we can even render them to black site prisons in third countries and give them what they really deserve!