softheart
01-23-2005, 11:05 AM
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Connecticut
By MICHAEL McAULIFFE, The Republican
HARDWICK - Brayton Shanley has never met condemned serial killer Michael
Ross, but says he knows him well.
The men have corresponded for 12 years, and while Shanley is holding out
hope that Ross will not die by lethal injection Wednesday morning at
Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers, he is not surprised Ross is no
longer seeking an appeal and wants to become the first man to be executed
in New England since 1960. Ross, who confessed to strangling six teenage
girls and two young women, said in his last letter to Shanley that he was
looking forward to death.
"I'm not afraid to die, in fact to me death will be a blessing - a welcome
relief to leave this horrible life of mine and to leave behind the guilt
that I can't handle much longer," the 45-year-old Ross wrote in the April
letter.
Later in the eight-page letter, Ross wrote: "There are times when I am so
full of turmoil and heavy with guilt and shame. ... But right now I am so
at peace."
Shanley, 57, is co-founder of the Agape Community in Hardwick, a Catholic
lay community founded in 1982 dedicated to nonviolence. He said he
initiated the correspondence with Ross.
In neat printing that Shanley called "almost calligraphy," Ross also wrote
in the April letter about the thieves who were crucified alongside Christ
- one who sought redemption and one who did not - and said he had come to
embrace death row and was glad he had not received a life sentence.
"Now I am glad that I came here," he said. "I am deeply ashamed and hate
the sins that brought me here, but ... I could have gotten lost in the
relative comfort of (the) general (prison) population instead of the
isolation and difficulties of living here on death row. I needed to come
here. I needed to be forced to carry this cross."
Shanley said Ross underwent a process of spiritual enlightenment over the
course of their correspondence, and he does not believe Ross wants to die.
"He doesn't really want it to happen," Shanley said.
Rather, Shanley said, Ross wanted a court to recognize he was mentally ill
at the time of the crimes and commute his sentence to life in prison.
Shanley also said he thought Ross had grown tired, saw little hope for a
favorable court ruling, and did not want to have the details of his crimes
dredged up again to cause further pain to families of his victims during
the appellate process.
"He's been in prison for 20 years on death row," Shanley said. "That life
goes up and down."
While others continue to seek a court ruling that will spare Ross' life,
Shanley talked about divine intervention.
"Miracles do happen, and I am in favor of miracles," he said.
---
Source : The Republican
Connecticut
By MICHAEL McAULIFFE, The Republican
HARDWICK - Brayton Shanley has never met condemned serial killer Michael
Ross, but says he knows him well.
The men have corresponded for 12 years, and while Shanley is holding out
hope that Ross will not die by lethal injection Wednesday morning at
Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers, he is not surprised Ross is no
longer seeking an appeal and wants to become the first man to be executed
in New England since 1960. Ross, who confessed to strangling six teenage
girls and two young women, said in his last letter to Shanley that he was
looking forward to death.
"I'm not afraid to die, in fact to me death will be a blessing - a welcome
relief to leave this horrible life of mine and to leave behind the guilt
that I can't handle much longer," the 45-year-old Ross wrote in the April
letter.
Later in the eight-page letter, Ross wrote: "There are times when I am so
full of turmoil and heavy with guilt and shame. ... But right now I am so
at peace."
Shanley, 57, is co-founder of the Agape Community in Hardwick, a Catholic
lay community founded in 1982 dedicated to nonviolence. He said he
initiated the correspondence with Ross.
In neat printing that Shanley called "almost calligraphy," Ross also wrote
in the April letter about the thieves who were crucified alongside Christ
- one who sought redemption and one who did not - and said he had come to
embrace death row and was glad he had not received a life sentence.
"Now I am glad that I came here," he said. "I am deeply ashamed and hate
the sins that brought me here, but ... I could have gotten lost in the
relative comfort of (the) general (prison) population instead of the
isolation and difficulties of living here on death row. I needed to come
here. I needed to be forced to carry this cross."
Shanley said Ross underwent a process of spiritual enlightenment over the
course of their correspondence, and he does not believe Ross wants to die.
"He doesn't really want it to happen," Shanley said.
Rather, Shanley said, Ross wanted a court to recognize he was mentally ill
at the time of the crimes and commute his sentence to life in prison.
Shanley also said he thought Ross had grown tired, saw little hope for a
favorable court ruling, and did not want to have the details of his crimes
dredged up again to cause further pain to families of his victims during
the appellate process.
"He's been in prison for 20 years on death row," Shanley said. "That life
goes up and down."
While others continue to seek a court ruling that will spare Ross' life,
Shanley talked about divine intervention.
"Miracles do happen, and I am in favor of miracles," he said.
---
Source : The Republican