HT to Polipundit
Death penalty opponents set off Sunday on a five-day walk to protest the state's plans to execute a serial killer who admitted killing and raping eight young women in Connecticut and New York in the early 1980s.
wow, only 8? I can see why they think he can be saved
About two dozen protesters began the 30-mile journey that will eventually lead to the prison where Michael Ross is scheduled to be put to death Friday in what would be the first execution in New England in 45 years.
Nighty-nite Michael, say hi to Satan
"So many people have asked me, 'Why are you doing this for Michael Ross?'" said Robert Nave, executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty, who is leading the effort. "We're not doing this for Michael Ross. We're doing this because it is state-sponsored homicide."
| It used to be known as "justice." |
Protesters plan to walk for periods each day through Thursday night, stopping at the state Capitol, at churches and for vigils along the way. They began before dawn in Hartford at Gallows Hill at Trinity College, the site where the state executed five criminals in colonial days. Later, they held a moment of silence for the eight women Ross admitted killing and their families.
Are they still dead?| Yeah, but it's been a long time. They don't matter anymore. |
| One moment for them, five days for their killer. |
Most opponents will not walk the entire 30 miles.
| Yeah, that's a purdy fur piece... |
They will come and go over the next few days.
| It's called "milling around"... |
For those who are marching, clergy have offered to open their homes to give them a place to rest at night.
lazy f&cks. I'd respect em more if they had the committment to actually walk the whole way...jeebus| Even if they could walk the whole way, I still wouldn't have any respect for them. |
| Out of shape and portly as I am, I think I could walk the 30 miles in a single day and still have time to stop at the 31 Flavors ... |
Though many acknowledged there was little hope the execution would be halted, they hoped to send a message.
| Thought they were at Western Union, did they? Well, I think most of us have gotten the message that they're airheads, most of whom probably have never seen a dead body, much less one that was murdered... |
Walter Everett, whose 24-year-old son Scott was killed in Bridgeport in 1987, said he never wanted his son's killer to die, just to serve a long prison sentence. Everett, a Methodist pastor in Hartford, once testified before a parole board for the man to have an early release after serving time with good behavior.
"Thanks Dad. I'm still dead"| "That's okay. I can always get another kid, but murderers are hard to find..." |
| I'm okay with a man of the cloth protesting the death penalty, but the rest of them are airheads. |
"I'm convinced the death penalty is society's way of admitting defeat," he said.
| No, it's society's way of protecting itself from ticks... |
Marjorie Henry, 71, lived directly across the street from the Wethersfield prison where the state conducted its last execution in 1960, putting to death Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky in the electric chair for a series of killings and robberies. The memory of that night causes her to cringe, even now. "I just remember a chill," she said. "Being chilled to the core of the soul."
"My electric blanket quit working when they juiced him" 
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