Petit Home Invasion Trial: Will Joshua Komisarjevsky Take the Stand?
Defense of Joshua Komisarjevsky slated to begin.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. Oct. 4, 2011— -- Lawyers for Joshua Komisarjevsky are poised to begin the defense of their client in the triple murder case after the prosecution has presented overwhelming and often sickening evidence against him.
To avoid having Komisarjevsky sentenced the death, the defense has taken unusual steps from a combative approach to the victims' family to repeatedly seeking a mistrial. Several defense experts raise the possibility that Komisarjevsky's defense team could take the even more daring tactic of putting him on the stand.
Komisarjevsky, 31, is on trial for having broken into the home of Dr. William Petit on July 23, 2007 along with accomplice Steven Hayes.
During the home invasion, they beat Dr. Petit about the head with a baseball bat and then tied him up. They raped and strangled Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48. Their two daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, were tied to their beds for hours and terrorized. Komisarjevsky admitted to sexually molesting Michaela Petit.
The house and the girls' bodies were doused with gasoline and the home was set on fire. Dental records had to be used to identify Hawke-Petit's body. And experts have testified that the death of the young girls was sure to be agonizing. Pictures of the attractive, smiling family torn apart by this vicious crime have saturated Connecticut media for years.
Daring Defense Strategy in Petit Home Invasion Trial
The job of Komisarjevsky's legal team -- Jeremiah Donovan, Walter Bansley III and Todd Bussert -- won't be easy. Their client gave a 90 minute long audio taped statement to police. He wrote a diary in jail which became part of a book in which he appeared to taunt Dr. Petit, the sole survivor of that night. And Hayes was convicted last year for his role in the crimes and given the death penalty. He is currently serving his sentence on Connecticut's death row.
Their client is so reviled that the legal trio have referred to themselves as the most hated men in Connecticut.
Attorneys in the case are under a gag order so ABCNews.com talked to several prominent Connecticut defense attorneys on what possible strategy the Komisarjevsky defense team might use.
"They are going to try to hang the jury up on whether or not Komisarjevsky was merely an accessory to the murder of a child or if he had a hand in committing the murders himself. If he's only an accessory, the defense will say he ought not to be killed," said Norman Pattis, one of the highest profile criminal defense attorneys in Connecticut.
They will blame Hayes for the violence, Pattis said. It was Hayes who bought the gas, Hayes who poured the gas in the family home and Hayes who lit the house on fire, they will argue.
Donovan is known as bold strategist in the courtroom, said Pattis, and it is possible that he will try something risky on the stand. "He has nothing to lose," said Pattis. And that could include putting his client on the stand.
"With most lawyers I would say the chances are 1 in 100 that they would put this client on the stand. With this lawyer I would say it's 1 in 4," said Pattis.
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