You're going to get to see criminals are pretty evenly distributed across the races.
One suspect, the lanky, scruffy Komisarjevsky, lived less than two miles from the Petits -- he is the son of a family with a storied history in Russian opera and theater. Hayes appears to have met Komisarjevsky in a halfway house after they were paroled.
The case also generated a broad outcry because the men were granted early release from prison by a parole board that failed to review transcripts from the men's sentencing hearings, as mandated by a widely ignored Connecticut law. "They are saying they didn't have the funds to make the copies," said state Rep. James A. Amann, speaker of the Connecticut House. "It is the lamest and most inexcusable excuse I've ever heard."
Can you imagine "the son of a family with a storied history in Russian opera" in a Willie Horton-style ad?
Connecticut Horror Punctuates a Trend
Violence Rising Fast Away From Big Cities
By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 11, 2007; A01
CHESHIRE, Conn. -- Ever since "that night," Kevin Mirando, 13, nervously questions his parents at bedtime: Mom, is the house alarm on? Dad, are the doors locked? How about the windows? When they reassure him that all is safe, he still tosses and turns for hours, unable to nod off until he checks and rechecks the bolts and locks himself. Kevin said simply "I'm afraid" as he stood alongside his mother during summer football practice.
Many are feeling unsafe in this New England community since July 23, when a pair of longtime drug users, released on early parole amid procedural errors in their case reviews, allegedly committed a savage crime that has rocked Connecticut.
The two men are charged with invading the home of a noted endocrinologist, William Petit Jr., 50, severely beating him, sexually assaulting and strangling his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and sexually abusing their daughter Michaela, 11, and killing her and her sister, Hayley, 17. After seven hours with the family, the men set fire to the stately house at the mouth of a quiet cul-de-sac before being caught while trying to ram their way past police cars.
