A recently concluded prosecution of three men who broke into a Woodbridge woman’s home illustrates a flaw in the state’s penal code that should be quickly fixed. In response to the atrocities committed against the Petit family in Cheshire, the legislature enacted a “home invasion” law. Connecticut General Statutes §53a-100(aa) now makes it a Class A felony to commit a burglary and attempt to or actually commit a felony against a person present in the dwelling. The second element of the new law is a distinction that allows for a far more severe burglary-related penalty of 25 years to life, with a mandatory minimum of 10 years of incarceration.
Legislators understandably aimed to beef up burglary statutes in the wake of widespread public alarm and state residents’ feelings of insecurity in their own homes. While perhaps unintended, there is a loophole in this law, as evidenced by this most recent case. (Credit to New Haven Register reporter Randall Beach, whose detailed story on the case I draw from here). The three men (a father and two sons) who broke into the woman’s house were apparently unaware that she was home. But she was and, unclothed save for a bathrobe, she was terrorized. She hid in her bedroom, crouched behind some furniture, and was surely petrified. Especially in the wake of the barbarism in Cheshire, one can well understand what went through her mind.
