High Court Will Hear Appeal In Ross Case

The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments on whether a lower court erred in denying the state public defender's request to litigate on behalf of serial killer Michael Ross.

Gerard Smyth, the state's chief public defender, said his office filed the appeal because New London Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford made a mistake when he refused to let the public defenders represent Ross as his “next friend.”

“It's so important that we pursue this and make sure that, whatever the outcome, that it's done properly,” said Smyth.

Ross recently fired the public defenders who represented him for 17 of the 20 years he has been incarcerated. He later retained private attorney T.R. Paulding Jr. to help him move forward with his execution.

The public defender's office argues that Ross is incompetent and wants to commit “judicial, state-assisted suicide.”

But after a hearing on Ross's competency Tuesday, Clifford found that he is competent to forgo further appeals, allowing the state to proceed with the Jan. 26 execution.

Smyth said that his office's motions were a catalyst for holding Tuesday's hearing.

“It was only after we filed our motions in New London that the state's attorney and the court re-examined Ross,” said Smyth. “If we hadn't done that, the execution would have gone forward without even that requirement being met. We believe we've already had some impact and hope to have some more.”

•••In their appeal to the Supreme Court, the public defenders argue that the office was wrongfully denied the right it has under federal common law to show that Ross is incompetent preparatory to being appointed as his “next friend.”

The appeal also alleges that the lower court erred when it refused to allow the public defenders to appear as a friend of the court.

“As things now stand, there will be no adversaries before the trial court. ... The court will be unable to explore and decide the extraordinarily serious questions presented by Mr. Ross's Oct. 6, 2004, request to be executed,” the motion reads.

The state has repeatedly argued that the public defender's office should not be appointed because Ross already has legal representation.

The state claims there is nothing in the law that prevents Ross from exercising his right not to pursue any further relief from his death sentence, and notes that the court has already made attempts to verify Ross's competence.

The public defenders are also participating in a motion filed by Ross's father, Dan Ross of Brooklyn. In that motion, Dan Ross is trying to be appointed as his son's “next friend” in an attempt to halt the execution.

A Rockville Superior Court judge will decide Monday whether Dan Ross or the public defenders have any standing to force Michael Ross to appeal his conviction.

Smyth said that if all state avenues are exhausted, his office would consider filing federal appeals.

The Connecticut branch of the American Civil Liberties Union has also entered the legal fray, filing a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Hartford that challenges lethal injection, the method by which Ross will be killed, as cruel and unusual punishment. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Dan Ross, acting as his son's “next friend.”

The lawsuit cites an anesthesiologist's critical report of the state's execution procedures and his conclusions that the process could inflict severe pain and trauma to Ross.

Dr. Mark Heath, a professor of anesthesiology at Columbia University, raised concerns about the low dosage and the manner of delivery of thiopental sodium, a sedative designed to render Ross unconscious at the start of the lethal injection procedure. He said there are myriad features in the administration of the lethal injection that could increase the risk of failure in delivering the anesthetizing drug.

Ross, 45, of Brooklyn, was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murders of Leslie Shelley and April Brunais, both 14, Robin Stavinsky, 19, and Wendy Baribeault, 17. All of his victims were walking along roads in eastern Connecticut when he kidnapped them and strangled them to death. Three were raped.

He also is serving two life sentences for the rapes and murders of two women in Windham County. He has confessed to killing two other young women in the early 1980s while he was a student at Cornell University.

“It's so important that we pursue this and make sure that, whatever the outcome, that it's done properly.”

Translation: "I want to drag this out as long as our creaking judicial system will let me. In the process I will directly contradict my client's wishes substituting my own for same, will extract the maximum public fees in this process and, finally, will seek the maximum media exposure for myself in order to establish awareness for my next book and campaign for public office" /cynicism

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