Dedicated anti-death penalty students drove to Hartford Monday to attend public hearings on the possibility of abolishing the death penalty. The hearings, which ran from 1:45 – 7pm, were held by the Connecticut judiciary committee in response to the ongoing legal process surrounding the death sentence of Michael Ross.

Ross, who would have been the first man to be executed by the state of Connecticut since 1960, confessed to the kidnapping, murder and sexual assault of eight women between the years of 1981 and 1984. In 1987 he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was overturned due to the court’s failure to allow the jury to consider certain evidence as to his mental state. At a new penalty phase trial in 2000 he was again sentenced to death.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty and has been active in this case.

“It is not a coincidence that many countries have abolished the death penalty in conjunction with developing more democratic societies,” said Josh Rubenstein, Northeast Regional Director of Amnesty International.

Rubenstein was one of more than 70 speakers at the session. Speakers at the hearing included lawyers, several religious leaders, politicians and political activists. Members of the public who wanted to speak had to submit a testimony and were chosen through a lottery system. Of those chosen, 73 spoke against the death penalty and three spoke in favor of it, according to Robert Nave, Executive Director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty (CNADP).

Many legislators were there, including those on the Judiciary Committee. There are 19 legislators who oppose the death penalty, 20 legislators who support it, and three who are undecided as of before today’s hearing. According to Nave, CNADP does not know exactly which three legislators are undecided, although their lobbyists do.

“I found out about the hearings through the amnesty listserv,” said Thomas Coen ’07. “I’m morally against capital punishment, but I’m glad I could be here.”

Sixteen Wesleyan students attended the event. Many of them had already been to the vigil at the Somers Congregational Church on Friday, organized by CNADP for the scheduled execution of Michael Ross. The group arrived at the church at around 12 a.m., and as church leaders sang songs and asked for prayers, students waited along with roughly 200 others for news as to whether or not the execution would proceed at its scheduled time. They finally received confirmation at around 1:30 a.m. that the execution had again been delayed.

The state Supreme Court today issued a stay of execution on Monday, which had already undergone several postponements in the past week. Ross, who had previously waived all appeals saying he wanted to be put to death and to give the victim’s families closure, agreed to postpone his lethal injection and have his mental competency examined.

The current death warrant expired Feb.1. This means that officials now must go back before a judge and ask for a new one, all of which could delay the execution for several months, according to Nave.

Lyuba Azbel ’08, student area coordinator of Amnesty International for the state of Connecticut, attended the hearings and has played an integral part in organizing the Wesleyan anti-death penalty efforts.

“I’m very happy with the turnout,” Azbel said. “Sixteen is good; we had 25 on Friday. Of course we could have had more, but it has as lot to do with it being rescheduled so many times. I actually had about 50 people emailing me that wanted to go.”

Erin Wisman ’06, another Amnesty member who helped coordinate with CNADP, has had previous experience dealing with the death penalty in her home state of Virginia, working as a legal/administrative assistant for a legal resource center that represented death row inmates.

“I’d always kind of thought that [the death penalty] is hypocritical, and I thought in my mind that you can’t kill someone; it’s wrong,” Wisman said. “After I got this job and researched it more, I found out that it’s bad public policy, a lot of tax payers’ money goes to prolonging the victims’ families suffering, and I think there are other places tax payers’ money should go besides killing people.”

Amnesty director Rubenstein also attended the vigils held for Ross during the week.

“New York state is also in a fix,” Rubenstein said. “If we can provoke something here in Connecticut, it shows that A, the state is out of practice, and B, that there is much hesitancy, and much public outcry. It is our job to make sure these legislators change their minds.”