09 November 2010 :

A jury sentenced Steven J. Hayes, 47, white, to death for killing 3 members of a family in a July 23, 2007. home invasion. In Connecticut the verdict must be a unanimous. The victims were: Hayley Petit, 17, Michaela Petit, 11, and their mother, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48. Judge Jon C. Bluehas yet to officially impose the sentence. Only 1 person has been executed in Connecticut in the last 50 years. A serial killer, Michael Ross, was executed in 2005 after he decided to forgo further appeals, but he was the first inmate executed in New England since 1960. Co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky is expected to be tried next year.

06 June 2010 :

The Connecticut Supreme Court overturned the conviction of  Robert Courchesne. The Court ordered 4-3 a new trial for Courchesne, 50, white, saying the death penalty was improperly applied. He was convicted of stabbing Demetris Rodgers to death on Sept. 15, 1998  over a drug debt. Rodgers was 8 1/2 months pregnant. Rodgers' child, Antonia Rodgers, was delivered in an emergency cesarean section at Waterbury Hospital shortly after. The baby remained on life support for 42 days. She died hours after life support was removed, as a result of the lack of oxygen to her brain that she suffered after her mother was killed and before she was delivered. Courchesne was charged with 2 counts of murder as well as 2 counts of capital felony, which is punishable by death, for killing 2 or more people at once and for killing a person under 16. The Supreme Court ruled that the trial court improperly invoked the common-law "born alive rule" in concluding that Antonia was a "person."  Specifically, the ruling states, "the panel applied the wrong evidentiary standard in finding that the state had established beyond a reasonable doubt that Antonia was born alive." The court upheld the murder conviction for Demetris Rodgers' death, but that count does not carry the death penalty.

27 April 2010 :

Judge George Thim granted lawyers for Richard Roszkowski a year's delay to begin picking a jury for a death penalty hearing. In a 4-line decision, Thim ruled the penalty hearing for Roszkowski won't begin until next year. He stated his decision was based on defense arguments that they needed a year to prepare to fight for their client's life. On July 15, 2009 (see) a jury sentenced Roszkowski, 44, white, to death for the Sept. 7, 2006 shooting deaths of 39-year-old Holly Flannery, her daughter, Kylie, and 38-year-old Thomas Gaudet. But the judge who presided over the case later admitted he made a mistake when he didn't tell the jury they had to unanimously find there were no mitigating factors before deciding if Richard Roszkowski should get the death penalty. At that time the judge rejected a defense motion to immediately impose a life sentence on Roszkowski and instead, he ordered the case continued for another jury to decide his fate. (see Oct. 16, 2009). In March the state Supreme Court supported a new penalty hearing for Roszkowski.

20 April 2010 :

A jury unanimously recommended the death sentence for Richard Roszkowski on three counts of murder for the Sept. 7, 2006, shooting deaths of his former girl-friend Holly Flannery, 39, her daughter, Kylie, 9, and 38-year-old Thomas Gaudet.