Prague: “Hang the Animal by His…”

A Democratic plan to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut may have hit a road block in Democratic State Senator Edith Prague.

Prague, 85, of Columbia, had been in favor of repealing the state's death penalty, until meeting with Cheshire home invasion survivor, Dr. William Petit, Tuesday, according to the Hartford Courant. Petit, whose wife and daughters were killed in a 2007 attack in their home, told Prague it would be more difficult for prosecutors to get the death penalty for Joshua Komisarjevsky, one of the two men accused of the rapes and murders of the Petit women. Komisarjevsky is scheduled to go on trial later this year.

"I want to give this man a little ounce of consideration here and that's my reason at this point in time to not support repeal," Prague told the paper. "I have to live with myself. I could not for one second cause this family any more stress."

But Prague didn't stop there. She had a different idea for Komisarjevsky, other than the death penalty. "They should bypass the trial and take that second animal and hang him by his penis from a tree out in the middle of Main Street," the senator told the website, CTNewsJunkie.com.

Appearing on NBC Connecticut Thursday morning, Prague said she stood by her comments.

Komisarjevsky's attorney, Jeremiah Donavan, called Prague's comments "inflammatory" and asked a judge for a delay in his client's trial, according to the Hartford Courant. Donavan was in New Haven Superior court for jury selection in Komisarjevsky's trial.

Komisarjevsky's co-defendant, Steven Hayes, was convicted of the Petit murders and sentenced to death last fall.