softheart
12-28-2004, 08:39 PM
December 28, 2004
NEW LONDON, Conn. -- Convicted serial killer Michael Ross is mentally competent to make the decision to die, a Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.
Ross, 45, decided earlier this year to waive all appeals to his death sentence.
"This decision is his right to make," said Judge Patrick Clifford.
After testimony from a state psychiatrist, Clifford found that Ross does suffer from mental diseases and defects, but that they do not affect his ability to make the decision to face his death sentence.
Earlier in the day, state psychiatrist Dr. Michael Norko, who has examined Ross, said he believes that Ross suffers from severe anxiety episodes.
But he also said that he believed Ross was competent to make the decision.
On the stand, Ross had to compose himself several times as he described his decision-making process, and the effect he believed the continued court proceedings were having on the families of his victims.
But he insisted he was making a logical, rational decision.
"I understand why they hurt," Ross said. "I've been trying for 10 years to stop this. Hopefully in 28 days I'll be able to stop this, and that's my goal."
If he pursued the full appeals process, Ross said, he believed that he would receive the death sentence again. While he said he believes he should get a life sentence, he said that likely wouldn't happen.
His degree in economics from Cornell University helped him make the decision to die through a cost-benefit analysis, he told the judge.
"The cost isn't worth it," Ross said. "The life sentence isn't worth dragging it out another ten or 15 years."
Ross, 45, has admitted killing eight women in Connecticut and New York and raping many of them. He is on death row for killing four young women in eastern Connecticut in the 1980s.
The execution would be the first in Connecticut in more than 40 years.
NEW LONDON, Conn. -- Convicted serial killer Michael Ross is mentally competent to make the decision to die, a Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.
Ross, 45, decided earlier this year to waive all appeals to his death sentence.
"This decision is his right to make," said Judge Patrick Clifford.
After testimony from a state psychiatrist, Clifford found that Ross does suffer from mental diseases and defects, but that they do not affect his ability to make the decision to face his death sentence.
Earlier in the day, state psychiatrist Dr. Michael Norko, who has examined Ross, said he believes that Ross suffers from severe anxiety episodes.
But he also said that he believed Ross was competent to make the decision.
On the stand, Ross had to compose himself several times as he described his decision-making process, and the effect he believed the continued court proceedings were having on the families of his victims.
But he insisted he was making a logical, rational decision.
"I understand why they hurt," Ross said. "I've been trying for 10 years to stop this. Hopefully in 28 days I'll be able to stop this, and that's my goal."
If he pursued the full appeals process, Ross said, he believed that he would receive the death sentence again. While he said he believes he should get a life sentence, he said that likely wouldn't happen.
His degree in economics from Cornell University helped him make the decision to die through a cost-benefit analysis, he told the judge.
"The cost isn't worth it," Ross said. "The life sentence isn't worth dragging it out another ten or 15 years."
Ross, 45, has admitted killing eight women in Connecticut and New York and raping many of them. He is on death row for killing four young women in eastern Connecticut in the 1980s.
The execution would be the first in Connecticut in more than 40 years.