Connecticut execution postponed
Judge evaluating inmate's mental competency
HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) -- A federal judge said Monday he will postpone the execution of a serial killer who had tried to end his appeals and was set to become the first person put to death in New England in nearly 45 years.
U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny said he wants to hear more evidence about the mental capacity of Michael Ross.
"I think it is inevitable that I will be issuing a stay postponing an execution until the outcome of this proceeding," Chatigny said.
He did not say how long a delay might last; prosecutors said they would appeal.
Ross, 45, is on death row for the murders of four young women in Connecticut in the early 1980s. His arrest in 1984 ended a three-year spree of attacks that stretched from Connecticut to New York, North Carolina, Illinois, and Ohio. He raped most of his victims, and killed eight of them, six in Connecticut.
He had been scheduled to be executed by injection Wednesday.
Ross made headlines last year when he fired the public defender's office from his case and hired an attorney to help expedite his execution. The public defender's office and others have continued to argue his appeal.
Ross has said he wants his execution to give to give closure to his victims' families.
But Dr. Stuart Grassian testified that Ross wants to be executed because he finds life unbearable on death row. Grassian said that letters Ross wrote in prison suggest that he is not capable of making rational decisions about his execution.
Grassian was the only witness to testify on Monday. "Having listened to the witness, there is no doubt in my mind that we have a genuine issue here that needs to be explored," Chatigny said.
Attorney Hubert Santos, arguing for the state's Division of Public Defenders Services, asked the judge for a 30-day postponement to allow psychiatrists to interview Ross, tour death row and review his medical records.
Last week, the state Supreme Court had ruled that the public defenders have no "meaningful evidence" of Ross' incompetence.
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