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My fundie parents are responsible.


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This is something we have not seen much of Blaming your fundie parents for the horrible things you got caught doing. Though if they did the things they do have some blame.

Defense cites sexual abuse in home invasion trial

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JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN

Published: Yesterday

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - A parole burglar facing a possible death sentence for killing a woman and her two daughters in a 2007 home invasion was sexually abused for years as a child but his ultra-religious family failed to get him proper help, his attorney told a jury Tuesday.

Joshua Komisarjevsky's adopted parents increasingly isolated him by home-schooling him and joining a church that had cult-like practices, according to his attorney, Jeremiah Donovan. He said the family failed to get him counseling and medications after he was raped and burned with a cigarette by a 15-year-old foster boy his parents had taken in.

"It's pretty clear by fourth or fifth grade this was a young man who was deeply troubled," Donovan said. "His family kept all this a secret."

The family did not believe in traditional counseling or medication, believing such approaches might be the devil's work, Donovan said. He said the situation was "just the wrong family for this type of kid."

"The evidence is going to show this young man was pretty much doomed from birth," Donovan said.

Komisarjevsky was convicted Oct. 13 of capital felony killing, kidnapping, arson and sexual assault. The same jurors will now decide whether he should get life in prison or the death penalty.

Komisarjevsky's accomplice, Steven Hayes, was sentenced to death last year after he was convicted of raping and strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit and killing her daughters, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley, who died of smoke inhalation in the Cheshire home. The girls were tied to their beds and doused with gasoline before the house was set on fire.

Komisarjevsky was also convicted of sexually assaulting Michaela.

Dr. William Petit, the sole survivor of the attack, was in court briefly Tuesday but left during Donovan's comments.

In his opening statement at the trial's sentencing phase, Donovan told the jury that Komisarjevsky's biological family had a history of mental illness such as bipolar disorder. He was adopted at 2 weeks old.

Donovan described Komisarjevsky's adopted parents as evangelical Christians. His father was controlling, rigid and authoritarian, was prone to tirades and forced the family to pray and cite scriptures.

The family attended church three or four times per week, along with daylong church functions. Komisarjevsky had to read devotionals as early as 5 a.m., memorize them and recite Bible verses as he raked leaves, Donovan said.

He said the jury would see textbooks the family used that offered a narrow view of the world, in which anyone who didn't accept Jesus as they did "is an influence to be avoided." The family's church rejected psychology, he said.

One of the family's churches put members in a mild form of trances, and practiced group humiliation and other beliefs that Donovan said were similar to a cult.

When Komisarjevsky was about 4, his parents took in the foster child who sexually abused him and another foster child in the house for three years, Donovan said.

"He was big, brutal, nasty, mean," Donovan said.

Komisarjevsky's mother called the Department of Children and Families after the other foster child reported the abuse and the teen was removed from the home, Donovan said.

Komisarjevsky began sneaking out of the house in the fourth or fifth grade, feeling safer wandering in the woods at night than at home, his lawyer said.

He was hospitalized at one point and diagnosed with depression, Donovan said. Komisarjevsky was willing at the time to undergo counseling and take medication, but his family sent him to a religious community in New Hampshire, where he was put in a program for troubled youths, Donovan said.

"All he was getting into was a more exaggerated version of his own family," he said.

Komisarjevsky began breaking into houses at night when people were home, his lawyer said, adding it was often "done for pure sport."

"There was absolutely no violence associated with it," Donovan said.

He said Komisarjevsky was working full time and had won custody of his daughter when he got out of prison: "He seemed to be shaking the demons of his youth."

But he noted his client met Hayes at a drug treatment program at a halfway house. Komisarjevsky's defense team has blamed Hayes for the brutal home invasion, but prosecutors say Komisarjevsky was the mastermind of the crime.

Prosecutors did not make an opening statement. They rested their case after calling a court clerk who detailed Komisarjevsky's extensive record of nighttime home burglaries.

Prosecutors say the crimes in Cheshire were especially cruel and heinous. Donovan challenged that argument, but Judge Jon Blue denied his motion, saying the victims suffered a terrifying ordeal for hours before their deaths.

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There's only so much a person can blame his parents for. What was done to those poor girls and their mother was deplorable. As far as I'm concerned he doesn't deserve to breathe my air and is a waste of space.

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If his upbringing/genetic combination causes him to be a danger to society, I am sure he will understand why he needs to be locked away.

You can only blame your parents for so much.

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I 've been following this case. It is one of the most disturbing crimes I've ever heard of. I think the defense attorneys are desperately tying to grasp at any straw they can to avoid the death penalty.

It is pretty obvious that even if this guy had some bad experiences as a child, there is no excuse for the horrible suffering that he caused that poor family. I feel terrible for that family. I'm sure they worked hard to build a good life, only to have it ruined like this...devastating.

Even if the guy had a "good reason" for growing up to have no conscience or compassion, to be honest with you, I think the world is better off without people who are so completely without any conscience or empathy that they could do something like this. I don't believe in revenge, but I do believe in using the death penalty the same way you would put a rabid dog to sleep. I don't think that sociopathic criminals should be tortured in the process of being executed, but I do advocate treating execution as a form of humanely putting to sleep those who are dangerously sociopathic.

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If his upbringing/genetic combination causes him to be a danger to society, I am sure he will understand why he needs to be locked away.

You can only blame your parents for so much.

That is a good way to look at it. If a normal person committed a horrendous crime, they would probably accept any punishment they ended up with as just punishment for something they recognized as horribly wrong.

The fact that this guy is trying to make excuses for what he did is just more proof that he really doesn't get why what he did was so horribly wrong.

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His upbringing does not excuse or mitigate what he did. But it should be setting off alarm bells. He's not the only one out there who was abused as a child and who has an untreated mental condition. The way people treat or mistreat their kids can affect all of us.

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I have been following the case too, and I do not think after Hayes' sentence, Komisarjevsky will get lucky on this one, no matter what happened to him as a kid. Although it is interesting how much of an escalation it was from what either of them had done before.

It also may explain what he did to Michaela...he said he felt a huge sense of power when he did it, and if abuse happened to him as a child he may have been unconsciously replaying the scene, this time where he is the one with the power.

I have slightly conflicting views on the death penalty (opposed right now, prepared to revisit the notion post revolution) but wonder if in some cases people who commit atrocities should be kept alive for study...

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The fact that this guy is trying to make excuses for what he did is just more proof that he really doesn't get why what he did was so horribly wrong.

there is a difference between an excuse and an explanation. i'm not sure before conviction when someone on trial for their life it's reasonable to expect a full, oh i deserve to die, confession. you'd be asking him to suicide.

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At some point, free will and personal responsibility for your actions need to mean something.

I know the defense lawyers are just doing their jobs and trying to save their client's life, but there is a very dangerous flip side to the "blame the abusive parents" line. I've had many cases where a parent faced the threat of losing custody of their children because someone said "they grew up in an abusive home and may repeat the pattern". Is childhood abuse serious issue? Of course, and it takes real work to overcome its legacy. At the same time, many DO overcome it (including my mom and MIL), and we don't simply say that coming from a bad background means that we sterilize you and lock you up.

This case wasn't a simple break-in gone wrong. The details were absolutely horrific and sadistic, so I don't think this guy should see the light of day again.

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I have to chime in with those who agree that you can only blame the parents for so much. Yes my parents raised me horribly wrong, but I'm an adult now. I have to correct any wrong behavior, and If, God forbid, I ever had such..er, impulses, I have the choice as to whether or not to act on it.

What I hope this case does is bring to light what can happen in these sorts of abusive situations so that hopefully it can be prevented next time.

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I think this introduces the idea that we need to watch parents more closely, because their shitty parenting affects us. I really have become an advocate of routine CPS welfare checks.

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While I don't agree that he should get off, he's potentially facing the death penalty. Does anyone really expect him to be all "Oh I'm sorry for what I did and I totally deserve whatever the court decides is a fair punishment"? Unless he's suicidal, probably not.

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He can blame his upbringing however much he wants, but once he turned 18 he was responsible for his own mental health and welfare.

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Of course he is responsible, but I think it is an important to acknowledge that these oppressive, overly authoritarian and rigid homes do not produce well-adjusted individuals, by and large. Those that end up as healthy adults have to usually work very hard to overcome all that.

He should be locked away for the rest of his life, because it doesn't matter why he did it for those purposes. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't look at these horrible parenting practices and say, "You know, that's effed up" and consider what role it may have played in the outcome.

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Gosh I hate when the creepy Cheshire home invasion intro music comes on the news and I usually don't listen to all the details, what I already know is enough for me but tonight I happened to be paying attention. They are now saying Komisarjevsky molested a younger sibling when he was 11, I guess prayer didn't keep a molested child from becoming a molester. Something was wrong in that home. They are also asking his 8 year old daughter to testify during the penalty phase, I just don't understand doing this to an 8 yr old who must be beyond traumatized already by her father's actions.

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I think that is what the plan is but I still am not comfortable having an 8 yr old child plead for her daddy's life. I am sure she has heard all the news and hope she lives far away from here. Most children I have contact with know about the invasion and are very afraid of it happening again. I know it scares me every once in a while, it is amazing how something so close to home can have a greater effect than if it had happened 1000 miles away.

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It would appear that his parents were ATI/Gothardite.

The owner of Recovering Grace was contacted by a reporter looking into ATI because Komisarjevsky's parents were ATI and they wanted more info.

I am not surprised.

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While I don't doubt he had a miserable childhood, he chose to torture, rape and murder that woman and her daughter.

This.

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