Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Norman Pattis, a defense attorney in New Haven has weighed in on Governor Jodi Rell and the Michael Ross case. What is it about the death penalty, other than its finality, that makes anti-death penalty proponents vacate their craniums when they begin to think about it? “Michael Ross was sentenced to death almost two decades ago,” Pattis wrote in a recent op-ed column , “and his case has bounced through the court system for more than a decade.” He almost got it right. The case has been dribbled through the court system by public defenders who, for twenty years after Ross had been prosecuted and found guilty of murdering four women, strung out the litigation through appeals over the objections of their client. Ross, who murdered eight women, has said that he wants justice to be done, so that the suffering of the families of his victims may be finally resolved. This may be Ross’ finest hour in a life full of murderous deeds. Ross, Pattis continues, “has declared a desire to end the fi...