Jan. 27
CONNECTICUT:
Conn. Asks High Court to Rule on Execution
Connecticut prosecutors asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to
override a stay of execution for an admitted serial killer and allow New
England's first execution in 45 years to proceed.
The prosecutors said U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny of Hartford was
wrong to postpone Michael Ross' execution in order to schedule a
competency hearing that would determine if his mental capacity had
diminished from nearly 2 decades on death row.
At issue is whether Ross, who says he wants the execution to proceed, is
mentally competent to waive appeals being pursued by public defenders he
fired last year.
"Every state court and 1 federal district court that has considered the
matter has found that Michael Ross is competent to elect to forgo further
legal challenges to his conviction," the prosecutors wrote.
The prosecution motion was sent to Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsberg. The court acknowledged receipt and gave no indication when
it would rule.
Ross, 45, was sentenced to death for killing 4 young women and girls in
eastern Connecticut in the early 1980s. He also has admitted murdering
four other young women in Connecticut and New York. Most of the victims
also were raped.
Gerard A. Smyth, the state's chief public defender, said he is uncertain
how the U.S. Supreme Court will act.
"Our hope is that the Supreme Court will uphold the stay and that we will
continue the proceedings before Judge Chatigny where we will be able to
establish that Michael Ross is incompetent to forgo his appeals," Smyth
said.
Chatigny issued the stay Monday after hearing testimony from a
psychiatrist who testified that Ross' lengthy seclusion on death row may
have made him incompetent. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court upheld the
stay.
(source: Associated Press)
