Posted: Thu Apr 14th, 2005 02:34 pm

2nd death row inmate opts for execution

HARTFORD (AP) — A second inmate on Connecticut’s death row has announced
his desire to forgo further appeals and face execution, possibly setting
the stage for another flurry of court action like the one surrounding
serial killer Michael Ross.

Sedrick Cobb, sentenced to death for kidnapping, raping and killing a
23-year-old woman in 1989, said he wants to drop his appeals in a letter
to Superior Court Judge Stanley T. Fuger Jr., the Hartford Courant
reported in today’s editions. The court received the letter on April 4.
Fuger presided over a lengthy hearing last year on Cobb’s claim that he
was not adequately represented by his lawyers during his trial. “I do this
without stress, mental duress, it’s just the right time,” Cobb wrote to
the judge. “I request a date in your court to make this official, so that
you can ask of me any questions or concerns that you have.”

Ross, on death row for killing four young women in eastern Connecticut in
the early 1980s, faces lethal injection on May 11. He would be the first
person executed in New England in 45 years if the death sentence is
carried out as planned.

Ross’ case is now tied up in a hearing in New London Superior Court to
determine if he is competent in deciding to forgo his remaining appeals.
Ross decided to drop his appeals last year and his execution was set for
Jan. 26, but the competency issue has delayed the date several times. The
hearing was to resume today.

In his letter to Fuger, Cobb also said that he is no longer represented by
Stamford attorney David Golub, who handled his complex habeas corpus
petition and argued unsuccessfully that Public Defender Gerard Smyth
provided Cobb with substandard legal representation during his trial.

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Source : Associated Press

http://www.connpost.com/news/ci_2659241