William Petit Sr. stands with his wife Barbara and family outside Superior Court in New Haven after the formal sentencing today of Joshua Komisarjevsky in New Haven, Conn. Komisarjevsky is joining co-defendent Steven Hayes on death row for the 2007 killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley and Michaela, in their Cheshire home. William Petit Jr. is the sole survivor of the crime. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)By Alaine Griffin,The Hartford Courant (MCT)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. Joshua Komisarjevsky was formally sentenced to death Friday for the home invasion attack that left Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley and Micahela, dead in their Cheshire, Conn., home in the summer of 2007.
“May God have mercy on your soul,” Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue told Komisarjevsky as he set an execution date for July 20. An appeal is automatic and mandatory.
“This is a terrible sentence, but it is a sentence you indeed wrote for yourself,” Blue said.
Moments before the sentence was pronounced, and with Dr. William Petit Jr. _ the lone survivor _ out of the courtroom, Komisarjevsky told the court that he had to learn how to forgive his worst enemy: himself.