Roxanne Doll’s mother is disappointed that the state Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of her child’s killer
By Scott North
Herald Writer
Roxanne Doll has been dead since April 1995, but she’s never far from her mother’s heart.
"She’s in the photographs on the wall. She’s in her sister’s face. It’s not like we can forget her," Gail Doll of Everett said Friday.
A blond-haired and blue-eyed girl with a gap-toothed grin, Roxanne was just 7 years old when she was abducted from her bedroom, raped and murdered.
A Snohomish County jury in 1997 decided Richard Mathew Clark, now 32, should die for the killing.
Roxanne Doll |
Doll said she was saddened, but only somewhat surprised, by Thursday’s ruling from the state Supreme Court, tossing out the death sentence for Roxanne’s killer. By a 5-3 vote, justices ruled that the sentencing was flawed because jurors heard too much about one of Clark’s prior convictions.
The ruling did not affect Clark’s conviction for Roxanne’s killing. Snohomish County prosecutors are now gearing up for a second sentencing trial, which likely will occur next year.
Doll said she doesn’t look forward to another trial, but she’ll be there, conducting the same silent vigil since the case began six years ago.
"It’s what I need to do for my daughter. It’s what I need to do for my other children. It’s what I need to do for my family and friends."
Clark’s trial lasted 32 days from the start of jury selection to the death penalty verdict. He was unrepentant when sentenced to die, muttering as he was led from the courtroom, "See ya. Wouldn’t want to be ya."
The state’s high court ruled that his sentencing was flawed because jurors were told how in 1988 he was convicted of unlawful imprisonment for grabbing a 4-year-old neighbor girl and tying her up in his garage with a sock.
Jurors shouldn’t have been told the girl was 4 or that she was Clark’s neighbor, Justice Richard Sanders wrote for the majority.
Jurors weren’t told that prosecutors initially charged Clark with indecent liberties because he had allegedly sexually touched the girl. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge because the child gave conflicting accounts of what happened.
Jurors who spoke with The Herald on Thursday said they didn’t recall the testimony about the 4-year-old girl. They said their verdict was driven by what Clark did to Roxanne.
Doll said prosecutors told her to expect that it would take a decade before Clark’s death sentence would be imposed. But she said she’s prepared to live with the possibility that a second jury won’t unanimously agree that he should die.
She just wants a resolution to the case before her surviving children, now ages 17, 15 and 11, have graduated from college.
"We know he did it," Doll said. "It is just a matter of how we punish him now."
You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431
or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.
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