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| Conn. Death Row Inmate's Request Could Move State Closer to Execution |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/21/2003 |
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Connecticut death row inmate Sedrick Cobb has asked a judge to drop all his appeals, a move that could set up the state's first execution in four decades within several months. Cobb, 41, told Vernon Superior Court Judge Stanley T. Fuger Jr. on Wednesday that he wanted to be put to death, The Hartford Courant and Republican-American of Waterbury reported in Thursday's editions. ''I no longer wish to appeal this sentence of death on this level, the federal level or any other level,'' Cobb told Fuger. ''And let me assure you, judge, it's not a delaying tactic or any kind of a game. ''I made my peace with God. Let's go,'' Cobb said, according to a transcript of the hearing. Cobb's request has launched a debate on whether the court can, or should, allow a death sentence to be challenged over the objections of the condemned man. Connecticut's method of execution is lethal injection. Cobb, a former delivery man from Naugatuck, is at odds with his lawyer, David Golub. Fuger delayed action on Cobb's request until July 23 so he can hear further arguments from Golub on why Cobb's earlier petition seeking to block the death sentence should proceed. Golub claims Cobb did not receive adequate legal assistance at his trial, and that the administration of the death penalty in Connecticut is racially biased. Cobb is black. His victim, 23-year-old Julia Ashe, was white. Cobb flattened a tire on Ashe's car while she was shopping at a Waterbury department store. When she returned to her car, he offered help to change the tire. He later asked her for a ride to his own car, which he said was parked nearby. She agreed. Once inside the car, Cobb, who later confessed, grabbed her by the throat and forced her to drive to a nearby wooded area. He bound her hands and ankles, and covered her mouth with packing tape, raped her, then carried her to a dam and dropped her 24 feet into the icy water below. But Ashe struggled to survive. She kicked off one sneaker and freed her ankles. She cut the tape around her wrists on a jagged piece of metal in the junk-strewn culvert. She struggled to climb up the embankment. Whether Cobb pushed her back in or she fell backward is unknown. Her body was found nine days later. The state Supreme Court upheld Cobb's death sentence in 1999, completing the only review of his case that is mandated by state law. Death row inmates cannot opt out of this appeal. All other appeals are optional. The U.S. Supreme Court in October 2000 declined to hear Cobb's appeal. The last person executed in Connecticut was Joseph ''Mad Dog'' Taborsky in May 1960. |
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