Federal Judge Issues Restraining Order Against Ross Execution
POSTED: 9:33 pm EST January 26, 2005
UPDATED: 9:52 am EST January 27, 2005
HARTFORD, Conn. -- A federal judge on Wednesday issued a restraining order that would prohibit the state from executing serial killer Michael Ross for at least 10 days, even as the U.S. Supreme Court considers lifting a stay of execution this week.
Ross, who has decided to forgo any remaining appeals, was originally scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection Wednesday morning. His execution would be New England's first in 45 years.
The state Department of Correction has postponed the date to Friday at 2:01 a.m. because of a flurry of legal appeals and will consider whether to delay it again on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny, who issued the stay of execution Monday because of questions about Ross' competence, handed down the restraining order late Wednesday afternoon in Hartford. The temporary order would prevent the state from executing Ross until a hearing is scheduled or held on competency issues raised by Ross' father, Dan Ross.
The elder Ross believes his 45-year-old son is not competent to decide to give up his appeals. At issue is whether Ross, who has tried to commit suicide in prison, is depressed and not competent to make decisions because of the effect that nearly two decades of being confined to death row has had on him.
On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court rejected Dan Ross' attempt to file appeals on his son's behalf. Dan Ross then filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court, alleging that his rights to associate with his son are being violated by the state. The state is improperly relying on his son's consent because he has been coerced into the decision to accept execution by the conditions he lives under, the lawsuit alleges.
"The evidence presented in the other case persuades me that these allegations have a factual basis," Chatigny wrote in issuing a temporary restraining order Wednesday.
Kevin Rowe, Chatigny's chief clerk, said the oral ruling handing down the restraining order was made following a telephone conference with the lawyers in the case. The intent of the order is to prevent the state from executing Ross even if the nation's highest court lifts the stay issued by Chatigny.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said his office will appeal the restraining order Thursday to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. Blumenthal is handling the case because Dan Ross originally had sued various state officials including Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano and the warden at Osborn Correctional Institution.
Morano referred all questions to Blumenthal, who said he will seek an immediate emergency hearing, as well as a motion to stay and vacate Chatigny's order.
"We believe this order is unfounded -- both legally and factually," he said.
Meanwhile, Connecticut prosecutors asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to override Chatigny's stay of execution. The high court did not issue a decision Wednesday, the court's clerk told the state public defenders' office.
In a 35-page motion, prosecutors argue that Chatigny was wrong to postpone Ross' execution.
"Every state court and one 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 in the motion.
Ross is on death row for strangling four 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. He raped most of the victims.
Last year, Ross fired his public defenders and decided to forgo further appeals of his death sentence.
Wednesday's appeal from prosecutors was sent to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The public defenders later sent a 13-page response in support of Chatigny's stay.
It was not known when Ginsburg would make a decision or if she would refer the matter to the entire court.
T.R. Paulding, Ross' lawyer, said Ross is upset by the delays.
"It's up and down. He's very frustrated by what's occurred. In his mind, he thought he was preparing himself mentally for (the execution) to occur when it was scheduled," Paulding said. "With each postponement, obviously it throws him off."
Paulding said he and Ross endorse the prosecutors' brief. They contend that Chatigny failed to give a so-called "presumption of correctness" to the state court proceedings regarding Ross' competency, including a decision by the state Supreme Court.
Paulding said Chatigny is not empowered to act as "a miniature appellate court" for state Supreme Court decisions.
Prosecutors appealed the stay of execution to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel on Tuesday ruled that Chatigny can hear evidence about Ross' mental competency as a way to determine whether the state's public defenders can intervene in the case and file motions on Ross' behalf.
The public defenders argue that Chatigny wants to hold a more comprehensive competency hearing partly because Ross' former lawyers were "rebuffed" by the state courts in their attempts to present evidence of the killer's incompetence.
The public defenders also claim that a psychiatric examination of Ross ordered by a state Superior Court judge was inadequate. For example, they said, the doctor who evaluated Ross was unfamiliar with a mental condition that makes inmates facing execution want to be put to death after years of confinement.
Chatigny allowed the public defenders to intervene Monday, but the appeals court said he should not have done so without first holding the competency hearing.
Gerard A. Smyth, the state's chief public defender, said he is uncertain how the U.S. Supreme Court will act on the matter.
"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.
The nation's highest court has already received an appeal on another issue in the case filed by the Missionary Society of Connecticut, an arm of the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ. The group argues it was wrongly kept out of the process.
2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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