Defense Uses Challenge as Komisarjevsky Jury Selection Continues

Jury selection resumed today for the trial of Joshua Komisarjevsky at New Haven Superior Court without any new jurors being chosen.

A source knowledgeable about today’s court proceedings said state prosecutors used one peremptory challenge to excuse a prospective juror today.

The state has used about nine challenges and the defense has used 12. Each side may use up to 40 peremptory challenges to excuse jurors without giving a reason. Defense lawyers and prosecutors must pick 12 jurors, six alternates and three backup alternates for the trial, which is scheduled to start on Sept. 19.

Two men and three women have been selected for the jury since jury selection began on March 16.

Komisarjevsky, the second defendant in the Cheshire home invasion case, faces the death penalty if he is convicted on several counts of capital felony murder and other charges related to the triple homicide.

His co-defendant, Steven Hayes, was convicted last year and sentenced to death row.

While the jury selection process continued in New Haven, death penalty supporters gathered in Hartford today to announce legislation that would speed up the appeals process in death penalty sentences. 

The last person executed in Connecticut, serial killer Michael Ross, spent 18 years on death row. He was finally put to death by lethal injection in 2005 after he asked for all legal appeals to halt.  

Click here to read more about support for a streamlined death penalty process.