The Cheshire Murders Page #6

But they have not sat with me

and they have not

sat with my parents

to tell us what happened and

what unfolded and why and how.

I believe that truly they think

they did something wrong.

I've heard all kinds of things,

that it was a small town

and they hadn't had

the experience in the past.

I think they were afraid.

I just can't say

enough good things

about how proud I am

of the extraordinary effort

of our police officers

and our firefighters.

Um, they're extremely

well trained,

they're a great group

of professionals,

and I think today

exemplified, um,

the finest of what the police and

fire are all about in this community.

And I can't thank them enough

because without

their great work, uh,

this could've been

a far worse tragedy.

Uh, we were very,

very fortunate...

I was just literally shocked

when I heard him say that

and that there were no further

casualties or something.

And I thought, you know,

"How bad does

it have to be?"

I mean, I thought it was awful,

and he was commending them on

what a great job they had done,

and I...

I was sorry, but I didn't

feel they did a great job.

I mean, if they had done a great

job, nobody would have died.

As you look

through this dispatch,

you can't help but

walk away thinking,

you know, that there's another

tragedy within the tragedy

that occurred to

the Petit family here.

9:
21:28, initial call comes in

to the police department 911.

And this is the call that was

actually from the bank manager.

I will watch and see

what kind of car she gets in.

I'm in my office with the door...

With the lights off.

My teller said that

she saw the driver.

He had a black hood over...

A hoodie and a baseball cap on.

I'm gonna keep you on hold

- for another couple minutes, all right?

- Okay.

Some police officers

were actually at the scene

within seconds or minutes

of when Steven Hayes and Jennifer

Petit get back to the house.

They had the phone number

of the house early on.

Nobody made a call.

Um, nobody knocked on the door.

9:
56.

Two suspects

are moving into Chrysler.

9:
57.

There is a fire also

at the scene.

Initial call

comes in at 9:
21.

This is over

a half an hour later.

They were actually at the

scene for 30 minutes.

The strangulation of

Jennifer Petit occurred.

The rape of

Jennifer Petit occurred.

The pouring of gasoline

occurred throughout the house

and the actual setting

on fire of the house.

All of this is taking place

while the police are

watching the house

setting up their perimeter.

It's really outrageous.

Filling in for Ed Flynn

today, on Talk of the Town.

We're gonna take a quick break,

and when we come back,

we're going to be joined

by Dr. William Petit from the

Petit Family Foundation,

so stay with us.

Yeah. 1984.

We go directly

to you. On nine...

Okay.

Eight, seven...

Dr. Petit is here,

and as many of you recall,

you know, it wasn't that long ago that,

you know, you suffered a tragedy,

losing your wife and your two

daughters in a home invasion.

Talk a little bit, if you will, Dr.

Petit, about the mission.

About the mission of the

Petit Family Foundation.

It's essentially to help out people

with, uh, chronic illnesses,

which was a nod to Hayley,

who was accepted at Dartmouth

and wanted to major in biology

and considered medicine

or other careers.

And to help people affected

by violence in their life,

which there's obviously,

uh, far too much of,

as evidenced by the

shootings in Oakland

and the shootings in Pittsburgh.

There are few things

that make me mad as hell,

and one is when I heard

that the legislature

was even talking about,

even considering

abolishing the death penalty

here in Connecticut.

And I'm beginning to wonder,

do I have anything in common

with this state anymore?

I mean, what the heck?

One of the studies

that has been done,

and it does get

brought up by people...

Study, study, study.

Well, this study actually has some

very good statistics, which are,

most violent criminals who commit

the most heinous of crimes

don't see the death

penalty as a deterrent

because their

sociopathic activities

don't take into

account consequences.

How do you feel

about that, Dr. Petit?

Death penalty's

clearly a deterrent,

because the person that has

committed the violent crime

can no longer commit it again,

so that person is

removed from society,

and I think they've

forfeited their right

to live in a civilized

society, and, uh...

The taking of a life,

the opponents like to say

it's, uh, murder

by the government,

but that's a semantic issue,

because murder is

the unlawful taking.

We have laws set down

for certain reasons,

and certainly the

defense attorneys spend

lots of time

and lots of our money

using the law to their benefit,

and, uh, the law says

that for certain crimes,

there's an ultimate penalty,

and society's believed in

that for thousands of years.

And that fight will

continue, and I know

that is, uh, one of the things

you're gonna fight passionately,

to make sure that those laws

stay in place, and, uh...

And no better spokesman

than you, Dr. Petit,

for why these laws are here.

State lawmakers

are considering a bill

that would change

the death penalty law,

and Dr. William Petit

gave his opinion

on the same day of a hearing

for one of the men...

Death penalty opponents

speak of the inviolable

sanctity of life.

They love slogans such as "Do not

kill in our name" and the like.

Thus, I assume that

death penalty opponents

value the lives of murderers

more than their victims.

Specifically, to me,

as a victim...

You know, if you're

for the death penalty,

this is the poster child,

no question about it.

If you're against the

death penalty, like I am,

this guy is the poster child

for the death penalty.

I mean, him and

Saddam Hussein, right?

Kind of hard to argue the case.

But it's not a philosophical

debate anymore.

This is reality.

And the ordeal you

have to go through,

once it's a death penalty

case, is considerable.

It's a guaranteed

multiple-years ordeal

in terms of just the trial,

and after the conviction,

scores of years of appeals

and frustration.

And all this time, the focus

is on the murderers.

They become mini-celebrities.

You have to go into gruesome

detail about what happened,

because the prosecutors

must prove that

the aggravating factors outweigh

the mitigating factors,

and the aggravating factor is

unusually cruel and heinous.

In other words, you have to prove that

compared to other triple murders,

this one is much worse.

Once this gets under way, people

are not gonna like what they see,

and it's just starting

to get under way now.

And so I guess I'd say

to Dr. Petit, you know,

I don't know who's

giving you advice,

but I think if anyone's

implying to you that

there's a realistic

hope that these guys

would ever actually be executed,

I think they're misleading you.

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