The Nation : Death Sentence Resumed

Michael B. Ross, 27, became the first person sentenced to death in Connecticut since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the death penalty in 1976, drawing the penalty for the kidnap-murders of four teen-age girls in 1983 and 1984. Superior Court Judge G. Sarsfield Ford in Bridgeport imposed the sentence selected by a jury 10 days earlier and set the execution date for Aug. 14, or within five days of that date. But public defender Joette Katz said an appeal will be filed within 20 days, automatically staying the execution. Ross, of Griswold, is serving a 120-year prison sentence for the murders of two other young women.