Connecticut Catholics plan to keep death penalty debate in spotlight

Published: 2005-02-04

HARTFORD, Conn. (CNS) -- Prayer is needed for both the families of murder victims and to change a legal system that supports capital punishment, a minister told several hundred participants at a Jan. 25 ecumenical prayer service calling for an end to the death penalty. "Let me clarify something about why we are here this evening," said the Rev. Stephen J. Sidorak, executive director of the Christian Conference of Connecticut, which planned the vigil at St. Lawrence O'Toole Church in Hartford. "This is not, and was never intended to be, a memorial service for Michael Ross, but rather a prayer meeting of those who have moral objections to capital punishment," he said. "We gather together here in the spirit of prayer in order that we might rededicate ourselves to ridding Connecticut of the death penalty. For Connecticut remains a state reduced to the politically unnecessary and morally untenable position of killing someone in order to prove it is wrong to kill someone," Rev. Sidorak said. Ross, 45, is on death row at Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers for murdering four women in Connecticut in the 1980s; he has admitted to killing eight women in that state and neighboring New York. He was originally scheduled to be put to death at 2:01 a.m. the morning after the vigil. But he received a last-minute stay of execution from Connecticut's corrections commissioner and then the state Supreme Court issued a stay. On Jan. 31, Ross, who had earlier said he wanted to be executed, agreed to a mental competency hearing, so his execution has been postponed indefinitely.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .