April 28
CONNECTICUT:
Complaints filed against judge who derailed January execution
7 state prosecutors have filed complaints against federal Judge Robert N.
Chatigny, whose stern lecture and threats to a defense lawyer led to a
postponement of serial killer Michael Ross' execution in January.
In a conference call 12 hours before Ross was to become the 1st person
executed in New England in 45 years on Jan. 29, Chatigny scolded Ross
lawyer T.R. Paulding for his defense of Ross' wish to forgo further
appeals and proceed to the lethal injection. Chatigny also questioned
whether Paulding had fully examined the issue of Ross' competence.
The complaints were filed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Manhattan last month and remain sealed, The Hartford Courant reported in
Thursday's editions. The complaints may never be made public if Chief
Circuit Judge John M. Walker Jr. dismisses them.
The complaints are aimed at two teleconferences Chatigny held in late
January with defense lawyers, prosecutors and assistant attorneys general,
said Senior Assistant State's Attorney Harry Weller, who filed one of the
complaints. He declined to discuss other details because of the
confidentiality that surrounds the complaints in the appeals court.
During a nearly one-hour phone conversation on Jan. 28, Chatigny
threatened to go after Paulding's law license if he found evidence after
Ross was executed that Ross was coerced or mentally unstable. He also
questioned Paulding's work ethic in evaluating Ross' competence.
"We're not in this profession to help people get killed," Chatigny told
Paulding. "I think you are way out on a limb."
After the call, Paulding phoned several colleagues for advice and spoke
with Ross, who reluctantly agreed to Paulding's suggestion that the
execution be postponed. Paulding announced the decision to the media at
about 1 a.m., barely an hour before Ross was to be put to death.
Paulding filed a motion two days later asking state Judge Patrick Clifford
to reopen Ross' competency hearing. Clifford approved the request and
declared Ross competent a 2nd time last week after hearing testimony from
4 psychiatrists.
Ross is now scheduled to be executed on May 11.
Paulding declined to comment Wednesday on the prosecutors' complaints.
Chatigny's law clerk, Peter Gwynne, said Chatigny would have no comment.
Weller said transcripts of the Jan. 27 and Jan. 28 teleconferences were
forwarded to the 2nd Circuit along with the complaints.
"All we did is we presented what happened," Weller said.
Ross was sentenced to death for the killings of 4 young women and girls in
eastern Connecticut in the early 1980s. He has admitted to killing a total
of 8 women in Connecticut and New York and raping most of them.
Walker could dismiss the complaints or appoint a committee including
himself and other federal judges to further investigate Chatigny.
(source: Boston Globe)
