Michael Ross deserves no pity. His fate was brought on by his own despicable actions.

Ross was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 2 a.m. Wednesday in Connecticut. A temporary stay issued Monday is being appealed by prosecutors. If the sentence is carried out, Ross will be the first person executed by a New England state in 45 years.

Ross is a murderer and rapist. He admitted to killing eight teenage girls and young women – raping some of them – in Connecticut and New York in the early 1980s. He deserves harsh punishment for his reprehensible crimes.

Anyone who has ever witnessed an execution can attest to the ugliness of the day. Watching a person die is a terrible sight, even when that person is a monster. Far from the sanitized surroundings associated with lethal injection, state executions have the ugliness of an untimely death.

The condemned enters the death chamber and is strapped to a gurney. A curtain is drawn while the tubes that deliver death are connected. The curtains open and the lethal dose is administered. Death comes quickly, but it’s emotional and difficult to witness. One moment there’s life; the next, it’s gone.

If Ross’ execution is not stopped, it will happen in the dead of night, while most people are asleep. His death, earned by his own hands, will be shrouded in darkness and kept away from the polite conversations of the community that condemned him.

If we, as a society, can support the execution of a person, the event itself should not be conducted in the middle of the night, as if it were a secret. Justice should be delivered forthrightly and during waking hours.