Steven Hayes Likely To Spend Years On Death Row

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Steven Hayes is set to be formally sentenced to death next week. But like all death row inmates in Connecticut, he will probably spend many years, if not the rest of his life, in prison.

Hayes is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 2 for sexually assaulting and strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit in 2007. Authorities say he and another man tied her two daughters to their beds, poured gasoline on them and set fire to their Cheshire house.

Hayes already has taken his spot with the nine others on Connecticut's death row.

They are allowed two hours of recreation outside their cell six days a week. One hour typically is spent indoors, in an area with a library and phone. The other is spent outside, in a courtyard, inside a cage.

In comparison, a Correction Department spokesman says, prisoners sentenced to life are typically housed with the general population. They are allowed out of their cells six to seven hours a day and may spend that time with other prisoners.

Connecticut has executed just one person since 1960.

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