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Judge: Execution, prison costs irrelevant
NEW HAVEN, Conn., -- A Connecticut judge rejected a convicted killer's request to allow testimony on the cost to the state of execution compared to the cost of life imprisonment.
In the Wednesday pre-sentencing hearing in New Haven for Steven Hayes, 47, of Winsted, Judge Jon C. Blue said juries in penalty phases of capital cases are "charged with the task of using reasoned moral judgment, not counting dollars and cents," the Hartford Courant reported Thursday.
Jurors are to decide next week whether Hayes will get the death penalty or life in prison for the July 23, 2007, slayings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17 and Michaela, 11, in the course of a break-in, robbery and arson at their home in Cheshire, the Courant reported.
Hayes was found guilty of 16 charges, six of which are subject to capital punishment.
"Economic arguments tailored to specific individuals are not only irrelevant but perverse," Blue wrote. "From an economic view, it will thus be more expensive to incarcerate the younger defendant for the remainder of his life and -- in strict economic terms -- more cost-effective to execute him. ... This argument plainly makes no moral sense."
"It may be rather crass to stand up and argue in a case of this magnitude that you should consider the cost," New Haven Public Defender Thomas J. Ullmann said in court.
NEW HAVEN, Conn., -- A Connecticut judge rejected a convicted killer's request to allow testimony on the cost to the state of execution compared to the cost of life imprisonment.
In the Wednesday pre-sentencing hearing in New Haven for Steven Hayes, 47, of Winsted, Judge Jon C. Blue said juries in penalty phases of capital cases are "charged with the task of using reasoned moral judgment, not counting dollars and cents," the Hartford Courant reported Thursday.
Jurors are to decide next week whether Hayes will get the death penalty or life in prison for the July 23, 2007, slayings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17 and Michaela, 11, in the course of a break-in, robbery and arson at their home in Cheshire, the Courant reported.
Hayes was found guilty of 16 charges, six of which are subject to capital punishment.
"Economic arguments tailored to specific individuals are not only irrelevant but perverse," Blue wrote. "From an economic view, it will thus be more expensive to incarcerate the younger defendant for the remainder of his life and -- in strict economic terms -- more cost-effective to execute him. ... This argument plainly makes no moral sense."
"It may be rather crass to stand up and argue in a case of this magnitude that you should consider the cost," New Haven Public Defender Thomas J. Ullmann said in court.