A federal judge in Connecticut has rejected a complaint from a home invasion killer on death row who says the food he is being served in prison is not kosher.
Steven Hayes says he converted to Orthodox Judaism after killing two girls and their mother during a night of torment inside their Cheshire home in 2007. He sued the Department of Correction in August, alleging his diet wasn’t being properly prepared in the kitchen at the Northern Correctional Institution.
Hayes says he’s being forced to choose between eating and sinning.
The judge rejected his motions, citing two rabbis who say the preparation process complies with Jewish dietary laws.
Hayes and an accomplice were sentenced to death for the murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela.
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
14 Responses
Very interesting case. Did he somehow do tvilah and milah during the time he’s been locked up? Was there some rav/beis din that accepted and was migayer him? Most batei din require living in a frum community. Are there enough frum Jews in that prison that that would count? Should we care about this issue? Does the prison need to let him daven btzibur three times a day? Should the prison let him go out to do tashlich? Kapparose? Light chanukah candles?
What if a person says he belongs to a new religion that he just made up (he admits that much), and that that religion requires that he eat only pizza and ice cream, would the government be required to respect that? It seems to me like a very interesting case with very interesting questions. While it would be nice for the prison to be somewhat accommodating, it’s hard to know how far this accommodating should go.
I think he sinned plenty. Kosher food is not going to save him in any way. He is a monster. Let him not besmirch yiddishkeit by associating himself with our Holy religion.
This sets a dangerous precedent. Who is to judge the sincerity of any such request? We, as a community, should support this individual’s desire for kosher food, lest Jews may not be afforded this privilege.
Sinning? SERIOUSLY?
All of a sudden he’s worried about sinning what about murder
“Jews” like this we don’t want or need. Fry him asap!
This article fails to mention that he is not really Jewish. Rather he is a non-Jew who while in prison declared himself to be an Orthodox Jew and should therefore be given kosher food.
Some withing the prison system believe that the kosher food is better and declare themselves to be Orthodox Jews in order to get the “better” food.
This inline is proof of the problems of Avi Weiss’ proposal for giyur. Without standards this is who will be a ger. Because if “Rabbis” like Avi Weiss and his “Bet Din” feel there is no need to have any standards. Anyone can just proclaim a person, no matter how far removed from Yiddishkeit they are and intend to be and presto they’re a “Jew”. Then you have the chillul Hashem from California, Yanklowitz, writing an article in the NY Slimes, the same paper that hosted Acu Weiss’ hateful anti Jewish missive, how we have to be accepting of such a convert.
And people wonder why all Rabbinic groups are against Weiss.
People try to become Jewish.because they know Jewish people are being served better food
Kill two birds with one stone! feed him the most mehadrin Galah, greiven, cholent & kishke…he”ll be eating kosher, and NO LETHAL INJECTION NECESSARY !!!!!!
Sorry goofus, but you’re not right on this one… The guy is a goy through and through. Not only that, but he’s the lowest of the low – even rasha is too nice of a word for this trash. He doesn’t warrant any support whatsoever. He is making a mockery of all the we hold dear and if we want true Jews to have a hope of being granted kosher food while incarcerated we have to distance ourselves from liars and charlatans. Otherwise we run the risk of every inmate requesting kosher food to be assumed to be lying unless proven otherwise
Editor, please correct the article – he never converted to Orthodox Judaism. He merely declared himself to be converted. Self declarations are not accepted as conversion by any orthodox Rabbi – neither to the left or to the right
No beis din, not even that of Avi Weiss, would accept a conversion candidate who had committed murder.
Why do we have to bring Avi Weiss into this? In no world does any orthodox or non orthodox consider this man in any way shape or form jewish.
Geshiked,
How would you respond to a Jew who never kept mitzvos on the outside, but became frum in jail and is now requesting kosher? Would such a person be afforded the privilege of kosher food?
Obviously you do not take issue with the fact that Jews that are incarcerated are also “liars” (financial fraud involves lying). Why don’t we distance ourselves from them?