Conn. delays execution of killer
Conflict of interest with lawyer eyed
An hour before serial killer Michael Ross was scheduled to be executed this morning in Connecticut, state officials postponed the lethal injection after Ross's lawyer said he had a conflict of interest, which he declined to explain. Connecticut officials rescheduled the execution -- the first in New England in 45 years -- for Monday at 9 p.m.
T.R. Paulding, hired by Ross last year to help expedite his execution, said he had requested the delay, not Ross.
''The request made by Mr. Paulding today is appropriate and we have no choice but to honor it," Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano said.
Officials would not discuss the suspected conflict, but the decision came just hours after a federal judge scolded Paulding for helping Ross end his life.
''I see this happening and I can't live with it myself, which is why I'm on the phone right now," Chief US District Judge Robert Chatigny said in a telephone conference yesterday afternoon with Paulding, according to court records. ''What you are doing is terribly, terribly wrong."
A transcript of the conversation between the lawyer and the judge was attached to an appeal by Ross's father to the US Supreme Court. The high court rejected that appeal last night and ruled in favor of Connecticut Attorney General Robert Blumenthal, clearing the way for the execution to take place at 2:01 a.m. today.
Then at 1 a.m., state Correction Commissioner Theresa Lantz announced that the execution was postponed until Monday, three hours before the death warrant expires at midnight.
A farm boy who graduated from Cornell University, Ross, 45, admitted he had murdered eight girls and young women, many of whom he raped, in eastern Connecticut and New York in the early 1980s. Ross said he had suffered from an uncontrollable obsession with sexual sadism.
Ross waived his appeals last year and fired his public defenders, demanding to be put to death to spare the families of his victims the pain of further legal action.
The conversation between Paulding and the judge focused on Dan Ross's assertion that his son is not mentally competent.
Chatigny repeatedly told Paulding ''you are way out on a limb" during the call, saying Ross's life was in his hands.
''So I warn you, Mr. Paulding . . . you better be prepared to live with yourself for the rest of your life," Chatigny said, according to the transcript. ''And you better be prepared to deal with me if in the wake of this an investigation is conducted and it turns out that what [the letters say] is true, because I'll have your law license."
Last night, Paulding would not say what he needed to consider this weekend. ''I feel that it is imperative I take the appropriate steps," Paulding said. ''I will be taking those steps with all due diligence in the next two days."
A 10-day restraining order on the execution had been issued Wednesday by Chatigny in Hartford, after Dan Ross filed a civil lawsuit to stop the execution, against his son's wishes.
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York yesterday agreed to lift the restraining order, but not until 2:01 a.m. tomorrow to give Ross's father a chance to appeal.
Protesters had gathered to march toward the prison in Somers, Conn., in arctic temperatures. Ross waited in a holding cell.
Witnesses gathered to watch the execution from an adjacent observation room.
Law enforcement authorities who had tracked and arrested Ross in 1984 said they were sure he would have killed again.
Michael Malchik, a former State Police detective who cracked the case, called Ross a ''poster boy for the death penalty."
The final challenge to the sentence, rejected by the Supreme Court, came from Ross's father, who argued that his civil rights were violated because he was not allowed to present evidence that his son was mentally incompetent.
''We're very sad for our client, and we're appalled at the conduct of our state officials, who, if they actually believe in the sanctity of human life and the value of our families, should have had the decency to wait a mere matter of days to determine the constitutionality of this state-assisted suicide," said Antonio Ponvert III, the lawyer for Dan Ross.
Blumenthal contended that no reason existed for further delays because Ross's competence to waive appeals was well established.
Protesters from six states had showed up for the planned execution, organizers said.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. 