Dr. William Petit says he will not speak in court in the death-penalty phase of the trial against convicted killer Steven Hayes.
Petit essentially blames the state legislature for failing to make the law clear enough regarding victim impact statements.
"This lack of clarity in the law is a crippling disincentive to surviving family members of victims in capital murder cases to make a statement," Petit said, "because of the chances that an appellate court might later construe the vague law restrictively to decide that the way the victim impact statement was made did not conform with the law. I do not presently intend to seek to offer a victim impact statement in this case precisely because of my concerns that it could be used (wrongly) as a basis for appeal and possibly even a new sentencing trial."