Should This Serial Killers Life be Saved?

Squawker · May 12, 2005

May 12, 3:51 PM (ET)

By PAT EATON-ROBB
SOMERS, Conn. (AP) - A serial killer who struggled to hasten his own death - and was forced to prove he wasn't out of his mind - awaited lethal injection early Friday in New England's first execution in 45 years.
Michael Ross, 45, was scheduled to be put to death at 2:01 a.m. after fighting off attempts by public defenders, death penalty foes and his own family to save his life.
A federal judge rejected two appeals early in the day brought by his father and sister.
-snip-
Last fall, he announced he was abandoning all remaining appeals - which could have kept him alive for many years - because his victims' families had suffered enough.
"I owe these people. I killed their daughters. If I could stop the pain, I have to do that. This is my right," the former insurance agent and Cornell University graduate said last year. "I don't think there's anything crazy or incompetent about that."
Desperate to save his life, public defenders and Ross' family argued that Ross suffered from "death row syndrome" - that is, he had become deranged from living most of the past 18 years under a death sentence.

Source
I say give the man what he wants. Good grief, what are these people thinking? A serial killer has to prove he is of sound mind to get the sentence he deserves? Is this story for real?

shuamort · May 12, 2005

Squawker said:
Source
I say give the man what he wants. Good grief, what are these people thinking? A serial killer has to prove he is of sound mind to get the sentence he deserves? Is this story for real?

Yup, here's his full letter explaining his P.O.V. It's long but actually really interesting:
WHY I CHOOSE DEATH RATHER THAN TO FIGHT FOR LIFE
By Michael P. Ross #127404

Here's a snippet:
And I have decided to stand up and to accept responsibility for my past actions and to accept the consequences of those actions. These are my choices and choices that only I can make. These choices will not absolve me of my guilt or allow me to even begin to make restitution for my past - there is no way, short of the mercy of God himself, that I may be absolved of my
guilt, and there is no way that I could ever possibly make restitution for the pain and suffering that I have caused.

He admits to the crimes, he realizes that there is no legal recourse for him to get out of the death penalty, he understands by going through the appeals process that he hurts his victims' friends and family even further.

Let him go.

Gandhi>Bush · May 12, 2005

Normaly I'm anti-death penalty, but if this man wants to be let go give him counseling as a last resort to change his mind and if not, let him go.

Should This Serial Killers Life be Saved?

Squawker

Professor

shuamort

Pundit-licious

Gandhi>Bush

Non-Passive Pascifist

Should This Serial Killers Life be Saved?

Squawker

Professor

shuamort

Pundit-licious

Gandhi>Bush

Non-Passive Pascifist

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