Wash. Supreme Court upholds death penalty in 1997 murder
SEATTLE (AP) - The Washington Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for a man convicted of randomly killing and raping a 65-year-old woman while her disabled husband was in the house.
The court issued its decision Thursday on Cecil Davis' appeal stemming from his conviction in the 1997 slaying of Yoshiko Couch.
Davis had appealed the death sentence because jurors saw him in shackles during his first trial. In 2004, the Supreme Court vacated his sentence and Davis was re-tried in 2007, when he again was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Justices Mary Fairhurst and Charles Wiggins dissented from the ruling Thursday, saying while Davis' crime was brutal, similar crimes have been punished with life in prison without chance of parole and not the death sentence.
They say the sentence highlights "the random and arbitrary nature of the imposition of the death penalty in Washington," Wiggins wrote.
Wiggins also said he dissented because he thinks there is a race factor in the sentencing.
"A review of the reports of prosecutions for aggravated first-degree murder quickly discloses that African-American defendants are more likely to receive the death penalty than Caucasian defendants," he wrote.
Davis is African-American.
According to the court, Davis was partying with a friend outside his mother's house in Tacoma when he told his friend he wanted to "rob somebody" and wanted to kill a person. Davis along with a friend crossed the street and kicked in Couch's front door.
Davis proceeded to beat the woman and sexually assault her. At that point, his friend left, according to court documents.
Later on, friends found Couch dead in her bathtub, naked from the waist down. An autopsy found that Couch had been suffocated and died of exposure to chemicals.
Her husband, Richard Couch, had been downstairs in the home the entire time. Because a number of strokes, he wasn't able to walk and a telephone that usually sat by his bed had been moved to a closet and he couldn't reach it. Investigators found extensive evidence connecting the killing to Davis, including blood, hair and fingerprints. Davis had also taken Yoshiko Couch's wedding ring and he attempted to sell it to his mother.
Prosecutors also said that after Davis was in jail, he told a cellmate he killed Couch, but not raped her.
The court issued its decision Thursday on Cecil Davis' appeal stemming from his conviction in the 1997 slaying of Yoshiko Couch.
Davis had appealed the death sentence because jurors saw him in shackles during his first trial. In 2004, the Supreme Court vacated his sentence and Davis was re-tried in 2007, when he again was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Justices Mary Fairhurst and Charles Wiggins dissented from the ruling Thursday, saying while Davis' crime was brutal, similar crimes have been punished with life in prison without chance of parole and not the death sentence.
They say the sentence highlights "the random and arbitrary nature of the imposition of the death penalty in Washington," Wiggins wrote.
Wiggins also said he dissented because he thinks there is a race factor in the sentencing.
"A review of the reports of prosecutions for aggravated first-degree murder quickly discloses that African-American defendants are more likely to receive the death penalty than Caucasian defendants," he wrote.
Davis is African-American.
According to the court, Davis was partying with a friend outside his mother's house in Tacoma when he told his friend he wanted to "rob somebody" and wanted to kill a person. Davis along with a friend crossed the street and kicked in Couch's front door.
Davis proceeded to beat the woman and sexually assault her. At that point, his friend left, according to court documents.
Later on, friends found Couch dead in her bathtub, naked from the waist down. An autopsy found that Couch had been suffocated and died of exposure to chemicals.
Her husband, Richard Couch, had been downstairs in the home the entire time. Because a number of strokes, he wasn't able to walk and a telephone that usually sat by his bed had been moved to a closet and he couldn't reach it. Investigators found extensive evidence connecting the killing to Davis, including blood, hair and fingerprints. Davis had also taken Yoshiko Couch's wedding ring and he attempted to sell it to his mother.
Prosecutors also said that after Davis was in jail, he told a cellmate he killed Couch, but not raped her.
I don't care about race, it we was found guilty of this cruel crime, then hang him high with open viewing. (I know we don't hang anymore, I could only wish)Â
This guy was a menace, but the death penalty is too flawed a punishment to exist in America. Every year dozen of people are let off death row due to prosecutorial misconduct or DNA. Im not saying this guy should get off light (life in max security prison is by no means light), but I dont trust the states justice system any farther than I could throw it.
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Considering both libertarian AND liberal studies have shown that african americans and latinos are routinely given harsher sentences for the same crimes crimes than whites with longer criminal records, I definitely put stock into the idea that there may be discriminatory intent by prosecutors (knowing a few Peirce and King county prosecutors and assistant prosecutors only further endorses this idea...trust me, many of these guys racial beliefs would make even ol richard butler or Hayden Lake smile a bit).Â
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Time for voters to turn Wiggins and Fairhurst back into private attorneys, if they can't support the death penalty, which is the law of our state properly enacted, and after all the defendant's rights, two trials, and all appeals, lead to execution. Remember that dissent when they are next up on the ballot.
And one of these days when a defendant shanks a lawyer or bailiff everyone will scream about how come that defendant wasn't restrained...
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Not only do I see that coming, I'm willing to bet it happens in the next two years.
he's been allowed to live way too long-let's finish this up.
Willow has the right idea.  If people don't want to die or spend their lives in prison then don't kill . If you do the crime then do the time.Â
They say the sentence highlights "the random and arbitrary nature of the imposition of the death penalty in Washington," Wiggins wrote.
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I agree, let's start using it more.
What a frigging maggot.
"African-American defendants are more likely to receive the death penalty than Caucasian defendants..." Â Well, I think many African-American criminals don't know about it or don't care about it obviously...
 @female operative Are you for real? You're misunderstanding. The point is that if you look at sentences for blacks and whites that committed the same crimes, more blacks are sentenced to death.Â
@female operative I think it is more they feel that they can use the "race card" to get a lighter sentence, so they go ahead and do the crime...
But then again, all of the african-american people I know, wouldn't consider hurting anyone that wasn't trying to hurt them. With that said, we are still dealing with a lower level of society who feel that it is okay to take what you want from people.. These people need to be removed from society, and not to be placed as a burden to society..
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I hope this is the last appeal and that the sentence is swiftly carried out. I am so sick & tired of "death row" being home to these animals for decades - I would bet many die from old age while they spin the appeal wheel over & over again - living far longer than their victims were ever given the chance to.
Can't do without the race card when things go wrong.