The Connecticut man who lost his wife and daughters in a brutal home invasion in 2007 said Wednesday it was 'sad' one of the killers had his death sentence revoked to comply with new state laws.

Dr. William Petit was tied up in the basement of his New Haven home during the July 23, 2007 attack and almost beaten to death. He could only listen as his wife was raped and murdered by Steven Hayes. Petit managed to flee to a neighbor's home as his daughters perished in the fire Hayes lit.

'It is a very sad day when a prolonged trial and decision and sentencing by a jury that took 4.5 months to seat is overturned by a legislature that ignores the wishes of the people of CT,' he said in a text message via Twitter on Wednesday.

Commuted: Steve Hayes (pictured left in 2007, right in undated prison photo) was sentenced to death in 2010, but because Connecticut repealed the death sentence, he and ten others are having their sentences changed

Victims: Dr. William Petit (left) said it's an 'insult' that Hayes, who raped and murdered his wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit (right) and killed daughters Michaela (center-bottom), 11, and Hayley (center-top), 17, won't be executed

Horror: Hayes and friend Joshua Komisarjevsky raided the Petits' home (pictured after the invasion) in July 2007. They tied Petit up in the basement, then Hayes raped Hawke-Petit before strangling her to death

Bound: This evidence photo shows the bed that Jennifer Hawke-Petit was tied to at one point, and the scarf used to bind her. The yellow numbered sign is a police evidence marker

Tragic: Wolfe-Petit was taken to a bank to withdraw money for the robbers before her murder, while her daughters were tied to their beds. She told the cashier to call the police, but they arrived too late

Bedroom: Komisarjevsky raped Michaela, who was tied to this bed, then left her here when the house was set on fire. Michaela died still tied to the bed, though it's not known exactly what caused her death

He added: 'The insult is compounded by a Supreme Court that rules on not one but 2 cases based on personal opinions and politics and not the law.'

Hayes was sentenced to death in 2010 after being convicted of murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree sexual assault and 13 other counts.

Co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky was also sentenced to death in 2011.

But in 2012 the Connecticut House of Representatives voted to repeal capital punishment, stopping it from being handed out in future cases.

Originally, the 11 people on death row - including Hayes and Komisarjevsky - were still to face execution.

But in August last year that was deemed to be 'cruel and unusual punishment' and their death sentences were commuted.

Hayes's trial, which ended Wednesday is the first in a series deciding what will be done with those men. Komisarjevsky and the other nine men who were on death row have yet to face theirs.

Petit and his family declined to make a statement in court, saying they had already said what needed to be said during the trial, as did Hayes and his public defender Thomas Ullmann.

Superior Court judge Jon C. Blue concluded: 'With the gravity of these crimes and the depravity of your character, nothing more needs to be said.'

He then handed down six consecutive sentences of life without possibility of parole, followed by a total of 106 years for Hayes's crimes.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky committed their crimes in July 2007, when a home-invasion robbery spiraled into a nightmarish litany of rape, child abuse and murder.

The pair forced their way into Petit's home and beat him badly with a baseball bat before tying him up in the basement of his house, which he shared with his wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and their daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11.

The pair demanded money from Petit, then 50, and ransacked his home - but when they found a banking book with $30,000 in it, they changed their mind.

Instead, they decided they would take Hawke-Petit to a bank, and force her to withdraw $15,000. She did, and told the teller what was happening.

But the police did not arrive in time for what happened next.

Burned: This is the bed Hayley was tied to when the house was set on fire. She freed herself but died of smoke inhalation in the corridor outside

Injury: Petit, who managed to escape the basement and crawl to a neighbor's home, was so badly injured that at first his neighbor didn't recognize him

Inferno: The fire was so intense in the Petit living room that the only part to survive intact was the fireplace

Unrecognizable: The kitchen was burned beyond recognition, with only a few pots and pans left in the incinerated kitchen cabinets

Once back home, Hayes raped Hawke-Petit, then strangled her to death. Petit, still tied up in the basement, could only listen.

When he heard one of the men say that it 'it will all be over soon,' Petit realized that they were all going to be killed and managed to break the bonds on his hands - but not those on his feet - and crawl to his neighbor's house.

The doctor was so bloodied and disfigured by his beating that his neighbor of 18 years didn't even recognize him at first.

As Petit was crawling to safety, his daughters were suffering. They had been tied to their beds, with pillowcases placed over their heads.

Komisarjevsky raped 11-year-old Michaela - he later told authorities he thought she was 16 or 17 - and then Hayes splashed gasoline around the house and set it ablaze.

In journal entries read in court during the trial, Komisarjevsky wrote that he 'resented' the idea that people believe he raped Michaela, but admitting he did sexually assault her and then 'ejaculated onto her' in a 'vulgar display of power.'

He also took photos of her after the assault.

Hayley was able to free herself, but died in the hallway due to the superheated fumes. Michaela's body was found on her bed. It could not be determined how she died.

The suspects then fled the house, ramming through a police barricade with the Petits' vehicle, before being apprehended.

Facing the prospect of execution in 2013, Hayes told The New Haven Register: 'Death for me will be a welcome relief and I hope it will bring some peace and comfort to those who I have hurt so much.'

Speaking outside the court Wednesday, Ullmann said he was delighted by the result.

Accomplice: Komisarjevsky (left in 2007, right in undated court pic) will be re-sentenced at a later date. Hayes, meanwhile, had initially welcomed the death sentence, and converted to Judaism while in prison

Memories: This Easter post by Petit was made in the memory of his deceased family

'It’s a relief for many of us lawyers who have worked on this for so long, to see the elimination of this barbaric punishment [the death penalty] from our laws.'

He added that the only person killed against their will by the state in recent decades was serial killer Michael Ross in 2005 - and he had in fact requested execution.

'So the state never achieved getting somebody executed against their will,' he said. 'It was an incredibly failed criminal justice policy. The costs to the state were enormous. This money could have been used for victims and treatment programs.'

He added that Hayes had converted to Judaism while in court, and that he had to be talked out of suicide several times.

Hayes also sued the Connecticut Department of Correction in August of 2014, alleging the preparation practices for kosher meals in the kitchen at the state’s highest-security prison do not conform to Jewish dietary laws.

A federal judge ultimately rejected that argument.

Since the deaths of his daughters and wife in 2007, Petit has remarried. He and his wife Christine had a son, William Petit III, in 2013.

But he has said he will never come to terms with the loss of his first family.

A Tweet from Easter shows an image of Michaela, Hayley and Hawke-Petit looking down from Heaven, with the message: 'Easter 2016 / Gone but not forgotten.'

In May he began a run for state legislature.

Connecticut is the 19th state to remove the death penalty from its books.