Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday announced the suspension of the death penalty in Washington state. Currently, there are nine death row inmates in the state. Here’s a brief look at the cases:
Robert Lee Yates: Authorities say Yates is a serial killer responsible for the deaths of more than a dozen women, many in Spokane. Yates was convicted in 2002 for the murders of 24-year-old Melinda Mercer and 35-year-old Connie LaFontaine Ellis. Both killings were committed in Pierce County. He’s been on death row since 2002.
Conner Michael Schierman: He was convicted in the stabbing deaths of 28-year-old Olga Milkin, her sons, 5-year-old Justin and 3-year-old Andrew, and her sister, 24-year-old Lyubov Botvina, and of burning their Kirkland home. Milkin’s husband, Leonid, was in Iraq at the time of the slayings. “What he did to my family, the same thing should happen to him. I’m very comfortable with (the death penalty),” he told the Bellevue Reporter in 2010. Schierman has been on death row since 2010.
Allen Eugene Gregory: Gregory was originally convicted and sentenced in 2001 for the 1996 rape and murder of 43-year-old Geneine “Genie” Harshfield in Pierce County. His case was overturned by the state Supreme Court in 2006. The original charge was upheld in retrial and the death sentence was reissued in 2012.
Byron Scherf: Scherf was convicted of killing correctional officer Jayme Biendl by strangling her with an amplifier cord inside a chapel at the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe in January 2011. Scherf, a convicted rapist, was in prison serving a life sentence. “I’ve been waiting 137 days exactly to hear those words that he’s got the death penalty,” Biendl’s sister, Lisa Hamm, told reporters in 2013 after his death sentence. “I’m going to continue to count until he’s finally dead.”
Jonathan Lee Gentry: He was found guilty of fatally bludgeoning 12-year-old Cassie Holden in Kitsap County in 1988. He’s been on death row since 1991.
Clark Richard Elmore: Elmore was convicted in the murder and rape of 14-year-old Christy Onstad, the daughter of his then live-in girlfriend, in Whatcom County. He’s been on death row since 1996.
Dwayne A. Woods: Woods was convicted for the 1996 double murder of 22-year-old Telisha Shaver and 18-year-old Jade Moore in Spokane County. He’s been on death row since 1997.
Cecil Emile Davis: Davis was convicted for the murder of 65-year-old Yoshiko Couch by suffocating her with a poisonous substance. He’s been on death row since 1997.
Dayva Michael Cross: Cross was convicted for the 1999 stabbing deaths of his 37-year-old wife, Anouchka Baldwin, and stepdaughters 15-year-old Amanda Baldwin and 18-year-old Salome Holle in King County. He’s been on death row since 2001.
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