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Capital Punishment in Connecticut

State Statutes | Legislative History | Recent Case Law | Commission on the Death Penalty | Office of Legislative Research Reports | Executive Branch Actions | Executions in Connecticut since 1894 | Related Links | Michael Ross - Selected Chronology

State Statutes:

CGS 53a-54b Capital felony

CGS 53a-46a Mitigating and aggravating factors

CGS 53a-46b Review of death sentence

Legislative History:

A series of compiled legislative histories on landmark Connecticut legislation, with additional primary source material, act summaries, and glossary of terms. Each set includes the complete official transcripts of the Connecticut General Assembly House and Senate debate and the Connecticut Joint Standing Committee public hearings.  The volumes also contain primary source material from the Permanent Bill File Archive and the State Document Collection.  They may be borrowed by visiting on-site or through Interlibrary Loan.
Now available for circulation:

Legislative history of "An Act Concerning Revision and Codification of the Substantive Criminal Law. This act shall be known as the Penal Code",Public Act 69-828, 1969 House Bill no. 7182

Legislative history of “An Act Concerning the Death Penalty”, Public Act 73-137, 1973 House Bill no. 8297

Legislative history of "An Act Concerning Lethal Injection, Proportionality Review of Death Sentences and Murder of a Child", Public Act 95-16, 1995 Senate Bill no. 855

Legislative history of "An Act Concerning the Death Penalty", Public Act 95-19, 1995 Senate Bill no. 852

Recent Case Law:

Missionary Society of Connecticut v. Board of Pardons and Paroles (U.S. Supreme Court, January 27, 2005)

Ross v. Rell (U.S. District Court, D.Conn., January 26, 2005) Temporary Restraining Order

Ross v. Lantz (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, January 25, 2005)

Ross v. Lantz (U.S. District Court, D.Conn., January 24, 2005) Stay of Execution

In re Application for Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus
(CT Supreme Court, January 25, 2005)

[Motion for stay of execution dismissed]

Dissent (Justices Norcott, Lavery, and Dranginis)

Missionary Society of Connecticut v. Board of Pardons and Paroles
(CT Supreme Court, January 24, 2005)

State v. Ross
(CT Supreme Court, 272 Conn. 577, January 14, 2005)

Concurrence (Justice Norcott)

Concurrence (Justice Dranginis)

State v. Ross
(CT Supreme Court, 269 Conn. 213, 2004):

Summary

Opinion

Dissent (Justice Norcott)

Commission on the Death Penalty:

Final Report
Submitted to the Connecticut General Assembly January 8, 2003, in accordance with Public Act 01-151

Connecticut General Assembly Office of Legislative Research Reports:

Corrections Staff Carrying out Executions in Other States

Pardon Statistics from Other States

Allocution and Death Penalty Sentencing Hearings

Attendance at Executions

Legislature's Power to Commute Death Sentences and Effect on Pending Cases

Pardons

Executive Branch Actions:

Statement of then-Governor Rell on delay in execution of Michael Ross (January 31, 2005)

Statement of then-Governor Rell on her decision not to grant Michael Ross a reprieve (December 6, 2004)

Connecticut Department of Correction Administrative Directive 6.15 "Administration of Capital Punishment"

Related Links

MICHAEL ROSS - SELECTED CHRONOLOGY

May 13, 2005     Ross executed by lethal injection

May 12, 2005     U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied Donna Dunham's (Ross' sister) emergency motion for a stay of execution (Ross v. Lantz)

May 9, 2005     CT Supreme Court upheld Superior Court decision that Ross was competent and his waiver of further appeals was "knowing, intelligent and voluntary." (State v. Ross, Dranginis concurrence, Norcott dissent)

April 22, 2005     Superior Court at New London ruled that Ross was competent to choose to forego further appeals (State v. Ross, Memorandum of Decision re: Competency and Voluntariness)

January 31, 2005     Ross filed motions in state and federal courts for competency hearings, postponing execution; CT Supreme Court issued issued stays of execution; warrant of execution expired

January 28, 2005     U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the temporary restraining order imposed in Ross v. Rell

January 27, 2005     U.S. Supreme Court vacated the stay of execution entered in Ross v. Lantz (Docket # 04A656)

January 27, 2005     U.S. Supreme Court denied the application of the Missionary Society of Connecticut for a stay of execution of the death penalty (Docket # 04A647)

January 26, 2005     U.S. District Court issued a temporary restraining order for evaluation of Ross's competency (Ross v. Rell)

January 26, 2005     The Connecticut State's Attorney appealed the case (Lantz v. Ross) to the U.S. Supreme Court (Docket # 04A656)

January 25, 2005     U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the District Court's stay (Ross v. Lantz)

January 24, 2005     U.S. District Court issued a stay of execution to hold an evidentiary hearing on the issue of competence (Ross v. Lantz)

January 24, 2005     CT Supreme Court ruled that decisions of the Board of Pardons are not subject to appeal
(Missionary Society of Connecticut v. Board of Pardons and Paroles, 272 Conn. 647)

January 14, 2005     CT Supreme Court ruled that Public Defenders had no standing to intervene on behalf of Ross, and had offered no meaningful evidence that he was incompetent to waive any further appeals
(272 Conn. 577) [Ross V?]

January 10, 2005     U.S. District Court denied motion of Dan Ross (Michael Ross's father) to intervene on his behalf
(Ross ex rel. Ross v. Rell, No. Civ.A.3:04 CV 2186 C)

June 1, 2004     CT Supreme Court reaffirmed sentence of death (269 Conn 213) [Ross IV]

April 6, 2000     A New London Superior Court jury reimposed the death sentence

December 14, 1999     CT Supreme Court denied request for new trial based on failure of State to turn over psychiatric evidence (251 Conn 579) [Ross III]

February 21, 1995     Petition for certiorari to U. S. Supreme Court denied (513 U.S. 1165)

July 26, 1994     CT Supreme Court affirmed conviction, but reversed death penalty judgments and ordered remand for new sentencing hearings (230 Conn 183) [Ross II]

May 5, 1993     Supreme Court agreed to enlarge class of capital felony cases to be included in proportionality review (225 Conn. 559) [Ross I]

July 6, 1987     Ross convicted of raping and murdering 4 women, and sentenced to death

June 29, 1984     Michael Ross arrested and charged with six counts of capital felony
(four counts of kidnap-murder and two counts of rape-murder)

Compiled by Law/Legislative Reference Unit, 1/2005, revised 3/2009