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| Conn. Death Row Inmate Now Wants Appeal |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/21/2003 |
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Connecticut Death row inmate Sedrick Cobb, who last week told a judge he will not fight his execution, has changed his mind. Instead, Cobb sent a handwritten note Friday to Rockville Superior Court Judge Stanley Fuger Jr., saying he wants to pursue his appeal, The Hartford Courant reported. His current appeal alleges he was not adequately represented at trial. Cobb was sentenced to death in 1991 for the December 1989 kidnapping, rape and murder of 23-year-old Julia Ashe from a Waterbury parking lot. Cobb's latest position is an about-face from his statements July 9 to Fuger that he wanted to get on with his execution, repeatedly insisting, 'Let's go.' Defense attorney David Golub would not comment on Friday. In the letter obtained by The Courant, dated July 17 and filed in the clerk's office late Friday, Cobb wrote: 'Judge Fuger, After further consideration and thought, and after speaking with my family, I would like for the court, your honor, to withdraw my claim in which I state I no longer wish to appeal my case.' 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. His habeas petition, in which he made claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and racial disparities in the administration of the death penalty, was filed in late 2000, but was delayed as defense lawyers awaited completion of several comprehensive statistical analyses of race and other demographics in capital punishment. Of the six other men on death row, four have had their sentences affirmed by the state Supreme Court. The case of Daniel Webb of Hartford, who kidnapped and murdered bank vice president Diane Gellenbeck in Hartford in 1989, also is in the habeas stage. |
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