New York Criminal Lawyer Blog
Many Connecticut residents don’t know what to make of the decision of a jury to give the murderer of a Fairfield couple life in prison without parole, rather than the death penalty.
“It’s such a weighty decision.” This comment was made by the owner of the store next to the one where the murders took place. The killer shot both victims several times as he robbed their jewelry store on February 2, 2005.
“I know them very well,” the store owner next door told New York Criminal Lawyers. “They were genteel, sweet, family people. They had an unbelievable graciousness with loving, kind hearts.”
The victims’ children had just recently graduated college and had to endure six years as the trial process dragged on.
One benefit of the life sentence, in the eyes of some, is that it will not be endlessly appealed for years. Connecticut law automatically appeals any death sentence. In Queens and Westchester Counties, the judges are asked to move cases along so that this kind of delay doesn’t happen.
The killer is already serving life in prison in New York State for another murder, when he killed a jewelry store owner in Glen Head, New York. This happened less than two months before he murdered the Connecticut couple. He fought against extradition to Connecticut, specifically to avoid the death penalty and lost.
The jury deciding the penalty had to decide whether the aggravating factors of the crime justified the death penalty and whether the mitigating factors made him ineligible for the death penalty. Some argued his troubled background and heroin addiction gave him a lack of control that lead to his criminal acts, while others claimed these were no excuse.
Another store owner was quick to say, “If you kill someone, you deserve to die.”
“It was a horrendous, horrendous crime and I think he deserved a lethal injection.”
A pastor who was a classmate of one of the victims explained to New York Criminal Lawyers, “In essence, the death penalty solves our problem of what to do with offenders… in the same way that he solved his ‘problem’ in that horrible moment: by taking a life. That’s revenge, not justice. Nothing would be set truly right; nothing would be restored by his execution; everyone would wind up in the loser column.”
There are often unknown circumstances when it comes to criminal cases that can turn the outcome one way or the other. It’s impossible to know for sure until the details are told to someone with the legal ability of a New York Criminal Lawyer. There is no reason to go to court without your best defense prepared when there are New York Criminal Lawyers available to assist you.The Office of Stephen Bilkis and Associates can offer you support and guidance as well as a free consultation when you contact us at 1-800-NY-NY-LAW. We have offices in New York City, including Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island and The Bronx and in Nassau County, Suffolk County and Westchester County.