HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Prosecutors urged the state Supreme Court on Friday to again reject efforts to delay serial killer Michael Ross’ execution.
State public defenders and Ross’ father appeared before the court for more than two hours of arguments seeking to delay the execution. Ross, sentenced to die by lethal injection before dawn on Wednesday, is forgoing his appeals and has opposed repeated efforts to stop what would be New England’s first execution in 45 years.
“We’re a state that doesn’t force people to bring lawsuits that they don’t want to bring,” Assistant State’s Attorney Harry Weller told the justices, in arguing that the court should deny any attempts by third parties to intervene in the case.
The hearing was one of several tacks that opponents are taking to spare Ross’ life. The Division of Public Defender Services also was in U.S. District Court on Friday filing a habeas corpus appeal that seeks a hearing to determine if Ross is mentally competent to end his appeals and accept execution.
The state Supreme Court last week ruled that the public defenders have presented no “meaningful evidence” that Ross is incompetent.
“Certainly the rulings we have received from all the courts have not been encouraging,” said Chief Public Defender Gerard Smyth. “But we always knew at the outset that it may be necessary to go to federal court. We remain hopeful that the federal court will stay the execution and ultimately grant us the evidentiary hearing that we seek.”
Ross is on death row for the murders of four young women in eastern Connecticut in the early 1980s. His arrest in 1984 ended a three-year spree of attacks that stretched from Connecticut to New York, North Carolina, Illinois, and Ohio. He raped most of his victims, and killed eight of them, six in Connecticut.
Last year, he fired his public defenders and retained a private attorney, T.R. Paulding to help him expedite his execution.
In arguments before the state Supreme Court Friday the public defenders and attorney Jon Schoenhorn said a Rockville Superior Court judge was wrong when he barred them earlier this month from filing post-conviction appeals on Ross’ behalf.
But justices questioned why they should order such a hearing, since they determined a week ago that public defenders had no standing to advocate for Ross.
“Weren’t these the same arguments?” Judge William J. Lavery asked.
Since October, Connecticut courts have consistently ruled that only Michael Ross has standing to bring appeals of his death sentence.
Schoenhorn, who represents Dan Ross, argued that he should be given standing in part because Michael Ross gave his father power of attorney back in 1984.
Outside the courtroom, Michael Ross’ attorney, T.R. Paulding called that a red herring.
“He had just become incarcerated when he did that,” Paulding said. “It certainly wasn’t contemplated to give his father a right to bring a habeas corpus action four days before his execution to stop it.”
If permitted, Schoenhorn plans to argue that Ross received ineffective counsel at his trial, evidence was used from unlawful searches and seizures, Ross’ mental state was impaired at the trial, and that Connecticut’s death penalty is unconstitutionally biased, discriminatory and arbitrary.
Smyth said that may be the strongest argument of all.
Justice Flemming Norcott expressed concern that Ross could be executed while a study is ongoing to determine whether the state’s death penalty is racially, ethnically or geographically biased.
On Saturday, the high court is scheduled to hear the appeal of the Missionary Society of Connecticut. The group argues it was improperly denied standing this week in Superior Court to file a lawsuit that could force Connecticut’s Board of Pardons and Parole to consider commuting Ross’ death sentence to life in prison.
The society says it should be able to make the argument even though Ross has not sought a commutation.
“This is general harm to society we’re citing,” said Gordon Bates, associated conference minister for Justice Witness Ministries for the United Church of Christ, said the Missionary Society .
“Commutation should be mandatory for all inmates,” he said. … “It should not be a choice. They should have that as a matter of the last step in the state’s decision-making process, that this is a legitimate penalty and a legitimate case. Whether we can get that argument out into the debate is what we’re in court for.”
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny plans to take up the federal appeal on Monday morning.
Meanwhile, Paulding said Ross is preparing for his death, and visiting with friends and family.
“He’s a planner,” Paulding said. “He’s pretty well organized and pretty well prepared for all of the mundane things that attend to death.”
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