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| Judge strikes down death row inmate's appeal |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/15/2004 |
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Connecticut death row inmate Sedrick Cobb's claim that he had inadequate defense during his trial has been rejected by a state judge. But the ruling will likely be appealed to the state Supreme Court. Cobb was sentenced to death for the 1989 kidnapping, rape and murder of Julia Ashe in Waterbury. She was abducted from a Waterbury parking lot while holiday shopping on Dec. 16, 1989. Her body was found on Christmas Day in a pond. Cobb, 42, said last year he wanted to halt all further appeals to his death sentence, but later said he wanted to continue the challenges. His lawyer, David Golub, said he would vigorously appeal the latest ruling. Under scrutiny in the appeal was Chief Public Defender Gerard Smyth's decision to not call psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Selig to the witness stand during the trial. Selig was prepared to testify that Cobb was severely impaired with mental illness, and tie that illness to Cobb's actions on the night he kidnapped Ashe. Cobb told Selig that he had returned to the crime scene and watched Ashe struggling to survive, then returned again the next morning, propped her body against a tree and became sexually aroused. Those details, which were unknown to Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly during the case, persuaded Smyth not to call Selig. In the ruling, Judge Stanley T. Fuger rejected the idea that calling Selig would have changed the outcome of Cobb's trial. The state is currently preparing for its first execution in decades. Serial killer Michael Ross is scheduled to be put to death on Jan. 26. The last person executed in Connecticut was Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky in May 1960. |
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