Connecticut Executes Serial Killer

[shawmut]

By PAT EATON-ROBB

SOMERS, Conn. - A serial killer who struggled to hasten his own death — and was forced to prove he wasn't out of his mind — was put to death early Friday in New England's first execution in 45 years.

Michael Ross, 45, died by injection after fighting off attempts by public defenders, death penalty foes and his own family to save his life.

"The execution of Michael Bruce Ross has been carried out," Warden Christine Whidden said shortly after Ross was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m.

The Ivy League-educated Ross was sent to death row for the murders of four young women and girls in Connecticut in the 1980s, and confessed to four more such slayings in Connecticut and New York. He also raped most of the women.




http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050513/ap_on_re_us/connecticut_execution

[LiberalVoice]

1. But assisted suicide is illegal?

:shrug:

[EST]

2. So few appreciate the irony...

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[XemaSab]

46. Just out of curiosity,

what country are you from?

Welcome to DU, and welcome to America!

[StudentOfDarrow]

49. This is America.

Do not expect the government to use any type of rational or logical thought.

[darkism]

3. A shameful day to be a New Englander

Sorry guys :( I hope this doesn't signal the conservati-fying of the east coast.

[elperromagico]

10. Two New England states have the death penalty: CT and NH.

CT hadn't had an execution since 1960; NH hasn't had one since 1939.

New York, one of the "killingest" states in the country pre-Furman v. Georgia, recently had its revived death penalty thrown out by the courts. Of course, NY isn't technically New England, but that gives you an indication of how much things have changed up in your neck of the woods.

I doubt, therefore, that this points to a major rightward trend. It is more like a blip on the radar screen.

[BadNews]

4. Isn't Delaware considered New England.

I know that state has executed people in my lifetime.

[cprise]

6. No it's Northeast but not New England.

New England is MA RI CT NH VT ME.

The commonality that jumps out at me is that CT and DE are both bankers havens.

[Redstone]

18. Connecticut is a "banker's haven?"

That's news to me, and I've lived here since 1980.

Redstone

[JerseygirlCT]

27. For a long time, Hartford was all about financial services

either insurance or banking.

Not so much anymore, really, since there's what -- maybe 2 banks in the world anymore?

[NewJeffCT]

30. Check out Stamford

Swiss Bank has their US headquarters there and Stamford also has major offices for some big reinsurance companies (General Reinsurance)

And, don't forget that GE is headquartered in Fairfield.

[DrCorday]

5. AGH!!! Connecticut?!

They haven't executed anyone north of Pennsylvania for like 45 years. What the hell is this?

To think I was hoping for a day when most of the United States has ended the death penalty, a New England state, deep in the last bastion of reason in this entire country, goes out and kills somebody?

This actually made me feel a little sick inside. So saddening, no matter how much "the guy deserved it."

[Name removed]

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[DrCorday]

9. yeah, i know...

But it still makes me sad. I don't really think the state should ever be in the business of killing people.

It's better than in Texas, though. I'll give ya that.

[Name removed]

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[livinginphotographs]

19. Then we should give him some pills or razor blades

or a rope and let him do it himself.

Wasting millions of dollars on a trial for someone to commit suicide seems a bit much.

[Name removed]

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[livinginphotographs]

39. I'm not sure what your position is by what you posted

But I was not actually suggesting we let this guy off himself. I just see this whole case as state-sponsored suicide.

[Name removed]

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[NewJeffCT]

28. Yes, he wanted it - but, that meant HE controlled the process

And, not the state of Connecticut. Michael Ross is a celebrity now. If he had just been sentenced to prison for life with no chance of parole, he would have just dropped off the face of the earth in the late 80s.

[Name removed]

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[NewJeffCT]

38. He's been the subject of talk shows

and, not just local talk. The point is - that potential serial killers that want attention now know how to do it - ask for the death penalty.

[Name removed]

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[elperromagico]

11. To give you an idea of how active the death penalty is in NE...

Connecticut: Has death penalty (obviously),
63 executions since 1905, an average of 0.63 per year,
Most recent execution: 2005

Maine: No death penalty,
0 executions since 1905, an average of 0 per year,
Most recent execution: 1885

Massachusetts: No death penalty,
61 executions since 1905, an average of 0.61 per year,
Most recent execution: 1947

New Hampshire: Has death penalty,
3 executions since 1905, an average of 0.03 per year,
Most recent execution: 1939

Rhode Island: No death penalty,
0 executions since 1905, an average of 0 per year,
Most recent execution: 1845

Vermont: No death penalty,
8 executions since 1905, an average of 0.08 per year,
Most recent execution: 1954

This gives the entire region a cumulative of 1.35 executions per year and an average of 0.225.

The post Gregg v. Georgia (1976) average is 0.034 per year. Hardly massive.

Compare that to any other region. Go on, I dare you.

[Redstone]

12. I have only eight comments to add to the discussion:

Robin Stavinsky, age 19.

April Brunais, age 14.

Leslie Shelley, age 14.

Wendy Baribeault, age 17.

Dzung Ngoc Tu, age 25.

Tammy Williams, age 17.

Paula Perrera, age 16.

Debra Smith Taylor, age 23.

---------------------------

Redstone

[against all enemies]

13. How about a list of innocent people killed by the states for "justice".

Ross was evil, but killing him does not bring back these women.

[Redstone]

14. Sure, put up that list.

Executing innocent people is wrong, too. I never said it wasn't.

Those women won't come back, but Ross won't kill any more women, that's for sure.

Redstone

[against all enemies]

50. Was he killing women in prison?

[mitchum]

51. No, just masturbating while reliving their deaths

[against all enemies]

52. How do you know that?

Maybe he should have been executed with his dick in his hand, that way you could have justice twice.

[mitchum]

53. Because it's what sex criminals do

Since you're feeling so charitable to Ross, maybe you could have held his dick for him.

[against all enemies]

55. If you weren't such an idiot you would see I'm not defending Ross.

You're right, the death penalty is a fair part of our justice system.

[mitchum]

60. ?????????????

[lister666]

15. These,I assume,are....

...the kids that he was convicted of (and/or admitted to) having killed.

If it's good enough for McVeigh,it's good enough for him.

[Redstone]

17. Yes, he did admit to all of them.

Redstone

[Runcible Spoon]

58. yes but apparentlt NOT good enough for Terry Nichols!

he cut a deal for life imprisonment. So much for not "cutting deals with terrorists" :mad::grr:

[spartan61]

16. I lived in Brooklyn, CT, the home of Tammy Williams and

Michael Ross. I saw first hand what Tammy's murder did to her family. It was, and still is, heartbreaking. I also remember the paper filled with stories of Wendy, April, and Leslie. Please, folks, in some cases execution is necessary and in this case, very necessary. Even in Ross' own words, his death will be easier than his victims' deaths.

[livinginphotographs]

20. "execution is necessary"????

And this will help the family how?

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. And sometimes

"very necessary"...:eyes: (as opposed to the somewhat necessary, the just a wee bit necessary, the super duper necessary, and the high-medium necessary!)

[Danmel]

24. I have a 14 year old daughter

And if someone raped and murdered her and one of her friends, I would want them executed. I think that knowing that the person who killed your loved one is alive, eating, breathing, sleeping, watching movies, experiencing any pleasure would be hard to take knowing your child had been brutalized and is dead.

I can't imagine how the parents of those girls feel. To know your baby was brutalized and violated in her last moments on earth and that you were powerless to protect them or even say goodbye.

Generally speaking, I am not a proponent of capital punishment. I don't trust the government to do it right. In a case like this where there really is absolutely no doubt about his guilt, if I were one of those parents, I'd want him dead. Ofcourse it doesn't bring your child back. But at least the animal who did that to them isn't reliving his happiness in raping & killing your child anymore.

[JerseygirlCT]

26. Of course, you'd want him dead

which is why you wouldn't get to decide. I'd want to kill the person who harmed my child with my bare hands, but that's why we have a legal system -- so we deal in justice, not vengeance.

Him being dead doesn't help anyone's child.

[livinginphotographs]

36. The justice system is not supposed to function

on emotion. If you allow one execution, you allow the possibility of more executions, and then you're right back where you started with a system that kills innocent people.

[Danmel]

45. I know

And I really am not a death penalty advocate. I know that the system is inherently incapable of fairness, that the possibility of mistakes will always exist and I don't trust the state to make the right decision. I also have fundamental doubts as to whether it is ever appropriate to have state sanctioned killing.

That said, my heart aches for those parents and I can't imagine that kind of pain.

[livinginphotographs]

47. I agree completely.

I may have originally misinterpreted what you were trying to say. I apologize.

Like you said, I can only imagine how I'd feel if a loved one were murdered, especially in the fashion of the victims listed above. Just because I'm against the death penalty doesn't mean I have any sympathy for the dirtbag that committed this crime. I just don't believe in the "eye for an eye" crap.

[primavera]

57. Yet you would feel better if the alleged perp were dead

See, that's what I just don't get. I understand being totally destroyed by such a horrific event in ones life, but how is seeing another person laid out cold on a slab going to help? Do we imagine that the soul of our departed loved one will somehow rest easier? What makes two dead people better than one? Isn't that just trying to legitimize the tired old eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth school of thought? Aren't we bright enough by now to know that doesn't accomplish anything?

[Danmel]

59. No, it's not that

I just think it would be very hard, as a parent whose child was brutally raped and murdered, to know that the person who did that to her is alive, breathing, drinking cool water, having any pleasure at all. Have you ever seen "Our Town"? When Emily dies and she says "good bye to clocks ticking". That's what life is, a cup of coffee in the morning, the sound of clocks ticking all the little things that we experience every day that makes us what we are. The idea of someone who could rape and murder a bunch of children and the fact that he gets to keep on having brakfast and lunch and stuff and your child is dead, having spent her final moments being brutally raped and killed is just something I think would be hard to deal with.

[JerseygirlCT]

25. Not connected, and not necessary.

No amount of death will ease the families' pain. That's a silly argument.

Killing Ross doesn't change a thing, except make all of us CT residents murderers as well. There's no moral justification for this, none.

Michael Ross's desires are also not even remotely part of the equation. Who the hell cares whether he wanted to be put to death? Doesn't matter.

The death penalty isn't moral, it isn't practical, it isn't fiscally responsible. It's stupid, animal vengeance, and it's wrong.

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. "Vengeance is mine!"

Sayeth the State Apparatus...

[JerseygirlCT]

22. I've been trying to avoid this all morning.

They've made me complicit in murder. I feel sick.

[MassLiberal]

29. me too

also in CT

[Skeptic_All]

31. But you know what?

You'll get over it. I know I sure have.

[JerseygirlCT]

32. Life will certainly go on

But I'm not sure what you mean.

[Skeptic_All]

43. By your response, I think you know exactly

what I mean. Life WILL go on. There are too many people who seem to think that this isolated execution will cause to swing wide open, the doors to the death chamber in CT and NH's state prisons. It will not. This was a curious event wherein the condemned truly wished to die. I was struck by the similarity to Gary Gilmore's "struggle" to die against the brick wall in Utah back in 1977.

[JerseygirlCT]

44. There's been more and more movement around this

execution to finally abolish the death penalty. It didn't succeed this year, but it will continue to be brought up, and I think it WILL succeed. That might be the only good to come from this entire situation.

I also think Ross's wishes are totally beside the point. I don't care if he wanted to die -- the issue is the morality and legality of the death penalty, and his desires have no bearing on that whatsoever.

I hope this doesn't pave the way for future executions. I think enough people have been sickened by the entire process. But who knows? We apparently have those even here at DU who think it's just dandy.

[livinginphotographs]

37. Yeah, just like we'll get over all the civilians killed in Iraq.

The state is making all of us complicit in murder. Regardless of how horrible his crime was, we're not doing anyone a favor (except for him, evidentally) by killing him.

Hell, I'm sure he had a mother or a father or a brother. Now their family member is dead. Who do they get to execute?

[Throckmorton]

48. Well, I don't agree with the death penalty for any reason,

but I don't weep any tears for his parents either. They created him, making a 7 year old kill deformed chicks is just wrong, it just is. He had to ring the necks of hundreds of chicks each weekend, as his family owned one of the largest egg farms in the area, before he was allowed to go play. No, no tears for them, only for his victims and their families, who will never know normal again in this life, I weep for my state, which has tarnished it's soul, and for the pro-death penalty crowd, who choose not to see the truth.

Having said all this, I wish he was in prison for life, no special status, no TV interviews, no courtroom antics. Just sitting in prison with the thousands of other ordinary criminals. A Nameless, faceless, forgotten monster who is warehoused until his death. That is a fitting ending for such an evil being, no control, no fame, no limelight, just a cell and a date with oblivion.

But instead he has been made a martyr to the anti-death penalty movement in Connecticut. I wish it were not so, but it is. A creature like Micheal Ross does not deserve this celebrity standing; but unfortunately, the pro-death masses have made him into just that.

I just want to weep.

Yes, I know if it were my son or daughter that he had murdered I'd most likely have a different perspective on his state sponsored murder. I am, as are the families of all his victims, only human.

[cassandra uprising]

42. me three

:grouphug:

I told myself that I would stay away today. But I can't. I'm at a loss.

[Jack_DeLeon]

54. Nothing wrong was done here...

IMO its good to see that some juries will sentance a white man to death, its good to keep things fair.

[Lilith Velkor]

56. Hmph

What'd be fair is to pick a county or three and execute every white man in it. Then we'd be almost even-steven. (/snark)