The three lawmakers were joined at the news conference by State Senator Sam Caligiuri, Chairman of the Three Strikes Now Coalition and Dr. William Petit and Johanna Petit-Chapman, honorary co-chairs of the Coalition. The Three Strikes proposal has been a point of serious debate in the Connecticut General Assembly for years, but has been at the forefront of many lawmakers' since the summer of 2007 when Dr. Petit's wife and two daughters were murdered in a brutal home invasion at their Cheshire home.

"A big part of my campaign platform in my first campaign was support for the Three Strikes initiative," Sen. Kane said. "On my very first day as a state senator, I spoke in favor of and voted for this important piece of legislation. As a husband and father of two children, I firmly believe that the government's first priority is to protect its citizens and the Three Strikes proposal is an important step in protecting all of Connecticut's families from repeat violent offenders."

"The Three Strikes proposal makes perfect sense to me, and I quite frankly don't understand how any reasonable person can oppose it," Rep. Miner added. "This proposal simply says that if you are a repeat physical threat to law-abiding citizens, you will go to jail for the rest of your life, period, end of story."

"A lot of politicians are more concerned about the rights of criminals than they are about the rights of victims," Rep. Williams concluded. "It is unfathomable to me that anyone can reasonably argue that a career violent criminal should get anything less than life in prison. There is absolutely no excuse for allowing these criminals to continue to walk the streets, and this proposal, if passed, will help to prevent that from happening."