An effort to move child killer Richard Matthew Clark’s sentencing proceeding to another county was shot down Friday by a Snohomish County Superior Court judge.
Clark, 36, was convicted in 1997 of the rape and murder of 7-year-old Roxanne Doll in Everett. A jury sentenced him to death, but the state Supreme Court found fault with the sentencing procedure.
The high court sent the case back to Snohomish County for another sentencing proceeding, which could take seven or eight weeks.
Clark defense lawyer Jeffrey Ellis of Seattle argued that there’s been an enormous amount of publicity about the case since the girl’s body was found in north Everett in 1995.
Deputy prosecutor Kathleen Webber said the vast majority of the news stories about the case were in the 1990s, with relatively little media coverage since then.
Even recent coverage avoided specific details of the crime, and centered primarily on motions brought by the defense, Webber told Judge Thomas Wynne.
Wynne denied a move to another county, saying coverage has not been “unduly inflammatory,” and he believes a fair jury can be found.
In a related development, Wynne also turned down the bid of Clark’s lawyers to take a confidential poll of Snohomish County jurors who are called in the near future for other cases.
Ellis said he wants to determine if the case and Clark’s name register with average citizens who would be called for jury duty. He said he wants to learn whether citizens in general know that Clark once was sentenced to death.
The judge also turned down that request.
“I don’t see any basis to go forward with a questionnaire other than with jurors that might hear the case,” Wynne said.
Defense lawyers won one small point on Friday.
Ellis got a delay in the start of the trial from March 14 to April 11. Ellis asked for a delay until summer to finish preparation and investigative work, some of which could be used as evidence to ask for a new trial. He complained that there was a five-month delay in his getting some police reports and other documents.
Deputy prosecutor Mark Roe accused the defense of conducting a strategy to delay Clark’s death-penalty trial.
Clark remains convicted of aggravated murder. It will be up to the new jury to determine if he is executed or spends the rest of his life in prison.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
