Michael Ross, who fought to hasten his own execution...

Michael Ross, who fought to hasten his own execution and was forced to prove he wasn't out of his mind, was put to death in the death chamber at Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers. It is New England's first execution in 45 years. Ross, 45, died by injection at 2:25 a.m..
Ross was sent to death row for the murders of four young women and girls in Connecticut in the 1980s, and confessed to four more such slayings in Connecticut and New York. He also raped most of the women.
Last fall, Ross announced he was abandoning all remaining appeals, which could have kept him alive for many years, because his victims' families had suffered enough.
Ross was hours from death in January (see Jan. 31, 2005) when a federal judge scolded Ross' attorney and threatened to lift his law license for trying to hasten Ross' execution. The lawyer agreed to a new round of hearings on whether Ross was mentally competent.
At the hearings, 2 psychiatrists testified that Ross was mentally incompetent. They said he has a personality disorder that compels him to choose death to avoid looking cowardly. 2 other experts disputed the finding of incompetence and said he was genuinely remorseful.
Last month, judge Patrick J. Clifford again found Ross competent to decide his fate.
The last execution in New England was in 1960. Of the 6 New England states, only Connecticut and New Hampshire have the death penalty. New Hampshire has no one on death row and has not executed anyone since 1939.
Ross becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death in Connecticut in 45 years, and the 22nd in the USA).