Man condemned to die in Conn. case

Man condemned to die in Conn. case

new haven, conn.

A jury condemned a man to death Friday for killing a woman and her two daughters during a night of terror in their suburban home, a gruesome crime that evoked comparisons to Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” and halted momentum to abolish the death penalty in the state.

The jury took five days to deliberate defense attorneys’ request to spare the life of Joshua Komisarjevsky in light of abuse he suffered as a boy. Komisarjevsky, who will join his accomplice, Steven Hayes, on Connecticut’s death row, stood rigidly with his arms behind his back and had no visible reaction.

The two paroled burglars tormented a family of four in the affluent New Haven suburb of Cheshire before killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and leaving her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, to die in a fire.

Ex-Rutgers student rejects plea deal

new brunswick, n.j.

A former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate’s intimate encounter with another man chose the gamble of a trial, rejecting a plea deal Friday that would have kept him out of prison and sought to prevent his deportation to India.

Dharun Ravi’s reason was simple, said his lawyer, Steven Altman.

“He’s innocent. He’s not guilty,” he said after the court hearing. “That’s why he rejected the plea.”

The case sparked a national conversation about bullying of gay youths when the victim, 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, committed suicide days after the reported spying in September 2010.

Ravi, 19, is not charged in connection with Clementi’s death. He does face 15 criminal counts, including invasion of privacy, witness and evidence tampering and bias intimidation.

Woman charged with faking rape

sacramento, calif.

She split her own lip with a pin, scraped her knuckles with sandpaper and had her friend punch her in the face. Investigators say she even ripped open her blouse, then wet her pants to give the appearance she had been knocked unconscious.

But it was all part of what authorities said Friday was an elaborate hoax by the woman to convince her husband she was raped so they could move to a safer neighborhood.

Charges filed by the Sacramento County district attorney allege Laurie Ann Martinez, a prison psychologist, conspired with the friend to create the appearance that she was beaten, robbed and raped by a stranger in April in her Sacramento home.

Martinez, her friend and two co-workers eventually told police the whole thing was a setup.

It didn’t work. Instead, the couple filed for divorce six weeks after the April 10 incident, according to court records.

Seeking climate deal

durban, south africa

Negotiators from Europe, tiny islands threatened by rising oceans and the world’s poorest countries sought to keep alive the only treaty governing global warming and move to the next stage, struggling against an unlikely alliance of the U.S., China and India.

Bleary-eyed delegates worked through the night and all day Friday, and the two-week U.N. conference was expected to last until dawn today.

Delegates from the 194-party conference are trying to map out the pathway toward limiting global emissions of greenhouse gases for the rest of this decade, and then how to continue beyond 2020.

Associated Press