I was in New Haven just as day broke. Much to my surprise, there were few media wagons in front of the courthouse on Church Street. Only one ghastly looking antenna reached into the gray morning sky. All at once it struck me: death is now passÉ.
It was opening day of jury selection in State v. Komisarjevsky, the trial of the co-defendant in the brutal home invasion in Cheshire in 2007. When Stephen Hayes was tried last year, it was standing room only in the courthouse lobby when jury selection began. There was a grim sort of determination by the media to cover the case from beginning to end. Much though we say we hate the horror of it all, we loved every sordid minute of the coverage.
