HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Death penalty opponents are mobilizing for three days of vigils, marches and services before the state’s planned execution of convicted serial killer Michael Ross.

Opponents are planning a 60-hour walk marked with vigils, speeches and services. It is scheduled to begin three days before the execution at Gallows Hill at Trinity College, the site of state executions in Colonial days.

After marching past the governor’s mansion, the Capitol, and spending the night in churches, marchers will make their way to driveway of the Osborn Correctional Institution, the execution site.

Ross, who has admitted killing eight women in Connecticut and New York during the early 1980s, is on death row for four of those murders.

His execution, scheduled for 2:01 a.m. on May 11, would be the first in New England in 45 years. It was postponed in January after a series of legal maneuvers led Ross’ attorney to question if he had a conflict of interest in the case.

Supporters of the death penalty also will be allowed on the road below the prison, though no formal demonstration has been announced.

In January, opponents held scattered church services around the state and about 100 stood in a field near the prison in freezing temperatures before the scheduled execution. Warm weather is permitting a bigger and longer demonstration this time, organizers said.

Opposition to the execution led to an attempt in the legislature this year to overturn the death penalty. The bill was defeated 89-60 after a debate in the House. Protesters have been a common sight in the lobby of the Legislative Office Building wearing signs and stickers that say “Don’t Kill in My Name.”

Since the march begins on Mother’s Day, organizers are trying to bring mothers whose children were crime victims to the start of the march. Bud Welch, whose daughter died in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, is scheduled to speak, organizers said.

While most of the people involved are expected to be from Connecticut, it will also draw from around the region and nation, Nave said. Hannah Chotiner-Gardner, who works in the criminal justice program at the Boston-based American Friends Service Committee, one of the groups involved in the march, said the vigil is not designed to support Michael Ross, but to prompt people to seriously question the death penalty.

“We’ve come to a point where there’s no more legal avenues to take. If Michael Ross has made up his mind, his mind is made up,” Chotiner-Gardner said. “We are not endorsing him, we are not endorsing his horrible crimes, but we are saying what is about to happen is most certainly not OK.”

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On the Net:

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