Key events in murder case, ensuing 11-year legal battle
Published 9:00 pm Friday, March 31, 2006
April 1, 1995: Roxanne Doll, 7, is discovered missing from her bedroom at her home in south Everett. Hundreds of searchers begin combing Snohomish County for traces of the child.
April 7, 1995: Clark, then 26 and a drinking buddy of the missing girl’s father, is arrested on suspicion of involvement in Roxanne’s disappearance.
April 8, 1995: Two young girls find Roxanne’s body dumped among grass clippings and other debris on a north Everett hillside near Clark’s home.
April 13, 1995: Clark is charged with murder and kidnapping. The charge is almost immediately upgraded to aggravated murder after evidence shows the girl was raped before being stabbed to death.
Sept. 19, 1995: Prosecutors announce they will seek the death penalty, but a glitch in how they deliver the news to defense attorneys triggers a yearlong legal battle that ends with a state Supreme Court ruling that Clark’s rights were not violated.
Feb. 27, 1997: Jury selection begins in Clark’s trial. Juror screening takes nearly a month.
March 27, 1997: The trial begins.
April 15, 1997: Roxanne’s parents, Tim Iffrig and Gail Doll, are present for the verdict as the jury convicts Clark of aggravated murder.
April 18, 1997: The jury rules that Clark should die.
April 25, 1997: A defiant Clark is sentenced to die. He calls Roxanne’s parents “murderers” and mutters as he’s led from the courtroom, “See ya. Wouldn’t want to be ya.”
Sept. 11, 2000: The conviction and sentence are automatically appealed. The state Supreme Court orders Clark returned to Everett from death row for a new hearing on his case.
June 7, 2001: The state’s high court rules that Clark’s sentencing was flawed because jurors were given too much information about one of his previous convictions. The court throws out the jury decision that he should be executed. Prosecutors appeal.
Oct. 18, 2004: Snohomish County prosecuting attorney Janice Ellis rebuffs defense attorneys’ efforts to spare Clark. She announces plans to retry Clark in hopes of convincing a second jury that he should be sentenced to death again.
April 1, 2005: Clark’s new lawyers step up efforts to keep him alive, asserting, among other things, that he couldn’t be executed because of evidence he is mentally retarded.
Dec. 13, 2005: Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne turns aside defense motions, including a claim that Clark shouldn’t face the death penalty because Gary Ridgway, the Green River killer, had been allowed to cut a deal sparing his life after his conviction for 48 murders.
March 31, 2006: Prosecutors withdraw their effort to reinstate Clark’s death sentence after urging by Roxanne’s family. He is sentenced to life in prison without release. During the hearing, Clark admits he alone was responsible for killing Roxanne, exactly 11 years before. Had she lived, Roxanne would have been 18.
– Herald staff
