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U.S. | I'm a Death Row Pastor. They're Just Ordinary Folks

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In the early 1970s I was a North Carolinian, white boy from the South attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and working in East Harlem as part of a program. In my senior year, I visited men at the Bronx House of Detention. I had never been in a prison or jail, but people in East Harlem were dealing with these places and the police all the time. This experience truly turned my life around.

William Petit elected to Connecticut State House; doesn't plan to revive state's death penalty

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Dr William Petit
Dr William Petit
William Petit is elected to Connecticut state House 9 years after his wife and daughters were killed in a vicious home invasion

The doctor whose wife and 2 daughters were murdered in a horrific home invasion in 2007 has been elected to the Connecticut [22nd State House District].

Dr William Petit, the sole survivor of the attack that claimed the lives of his family, defeated Betty Boukus in the 22nd District, which covers Plainville and New Britain.

His wife Joanna Hawke-Petit, 48, and their daughters Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17, died in their family home at the hands of Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes.

Mrs Hawke-Petit was raped and strangled and the 2 daughters were both sexually assaulted before being tied to their beds and burned alive.

Dr. Petit was beaten with a baseball bat, tied up and taken to the basement, but he managed to escape and crawl to a neighbor's house for help.

The trial in 2011 heard how his wife was forced to withdraw $15,000 from a bank after the criminals threatened to harm her family.

When they returned, Mrs Hawke-Petit was raped before being strangled to death.

Her 11-year-old daughter was also sexually assaulted.

Komisarjevsky and Hayes then doused the home in Cheshire, Connecticut, with gasoline and set it ablaze.

Hayley and Michaela died on 23 July 2007 of smoke inhalation while tied to their beds - unable to escape.

Dr Petit revealed the details of what happened on that fateful night in his book, The Rising, Murder, Heartbreak, and the Power of Human Resilience in an American Town, by Ryan D'Agostino.

Komisarjevsky and Hayes were both initially sentenced to death, but they were taken off death row and re-sentenced to life imprisonment.

Dr Petit, a Republican, said he has no plans to try to revive Connecticut's death penalty when he won his state [house] seat.

The race hit the headlines last month when a labor union's political action committee ran an advert that tried to link Petit to Donald Trump and 'attacks on women and families.'

Speaking at the time, Dr Petit said: 'I feel they're quite malicious and attack my character and reputation and have absolutely no truth.

'I'm appalled that anyone would stoop this low.'

Source: dailymail.co.uk, Jenny Awford, November 11, 2016

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