Connecticut Legislators Vote To Keep Capital Punishment
HARTFORD, Conn. -- With New England's first execution in 45 years looming, Connecticut lawmakers refused Wednesday to overturn the state's death penalty.
The House of Representatives, after more than five hours of debate, voted 89 to 60 against a bill that would have replaced the state's death sentence with life in prison without the possibility of release.
The bill would have spared serial killer Michael Ross and six other death row inmates from lethal injection. Ross, who has admitted killing eight women in Connecticut and New York, is scheduled to die in May.
The vote came as a woman who was raped by Ross in 1983 spoke out against the death penalty.
"I'm not a killer. I couldn't do it," Vivian Dobson said through tears. "I'm so sorry to the parents because I lived and their babies died. And I can't change that. But I don't want to be a part of killing somebody else," she said.
Dobson testified against Ross during the penalty phase of his trial but said she did it only for the families of Ross's other victims, many of whom wanted to see him die. Her name and story never became public because court files regarding her participation were sealed.
• GLENSHAW, Pa. -- A legislator was charged with lying about a white powder he alleged was inside a letter mailed from a critical constituent. Republican state Rep. Jeffrey E. Habay, 38, maintained he received the letter at home last May and that it had a suspicious white substance inside, raising fears of anthrax contamination. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service said the substance was harmless. Habay was charged with falsely incriminating another, fictitious reports, solicitation to commit perjury and possessing or using "facsimile weapons of mass destruction," court documents show.
• FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- A soldier charged in a fatal grenade attack on two officers in Kuwait in March 2003 tried to overpower one of his military guards, causing the postponement of a planned pretrial hearing until Friday. Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar turned against one of his military police escorts at Fort Bragg's courts building around 7 a.m., two hours before the scheduled start of the hearing, the Army said in a statement. "The MPs quickly regained control of Akbar," the statement said.
• GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A 16-year-old has been arrested in a string of bomb threats over the past week, leading to evacuations at the airport, government buildings and office towers. Tony Wayne Moore was arrested Tuesday night and charged with 20 felony counts of making false reports of a destructive device.
• NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- A man who mistakenly believed a couple had turned him in for drug possession broke into their house and fatally shot them, then killed himself, police said. David Edward Johnson, 33, shot Aeneas and Julie Hernlen early Monday, and committed suicide at home later in the day. Authorities said Johnson thought the Hernlens had reported him to police in November for growing marijuana and possessing steroids. Investigators said the couple, who were once friendly with Johnson, had nothing to do with his arrest.
-- From News Services
