Clemency hearing held for condemned killer The state Clemency and Pardons Board met today to ponder a petition filed on behalf of Darold Ray Stenson.
By ANDY PORTER of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
WALLA WALLA -- As preparations continued for his execution, a state board today held a hearing on a clemency petition for Darold Ray Stenson, who faces death by lethal injection Wednesday night.
The Washington state Clemency and Pardons Board met in Olympia to consider the petition filed by the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. After hearing testimony, the board moved to continue its hearing and if the execution is allowed to proceed, meet in emergency session Wednesday.
Jeffrey Ellis, coalition president, told the board that although Stenson objected to the coalition's petition because he considers himself innocent, the execution needs to be delayed until new DNA tests are carried out.
Ellis, in fact, said the board should table any action on Stenson's case until all court proceedings have been finished. "I expect that later today the Washington State Supreme Court will refuse to dissolve the stay," Ellis said, halting the execution for now.
However, Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deborah Kelly said the efforts by Stenson and his attorneys to seek DNA testing was an attempt to thwart justice.
"It is not a search for truth that is going on, but a search for further delay," she told the board.
Stenson, 56, is scheduled to be executed at 8 p.m. Wednesday pending the outcome of motions now before state and federal courts. He was convicted in 1994 of murdering his wife, Denise Stenson, and a business associate, Frank Hoerner. The jury in his case sentenced him to death in 1994 and he has since been imprisoned at Washington State Penitentiary.
After his latest round of appeals were turned down, Stenson's execution was set to occur Wednesday. But it put on hold last week when appeals for stays were granted by Clallam County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Williams and U.S. District Court Judge Lonny Suko in Yakima. The state has appealed one stay to the U.S. Supreme Court and the state Supreme Court has been asked to review the other.
Although state law requires the execution to be reset for "30 judicial days" from the date a stay is revoked, Attorney General Rob McKenna has said that the execution will proceed Wednesday if the stays are lifted.
The basis for that is a Washington Supreme Court ruling made in response to an appeal filed to stop the execution of Jeremy Sagastegui in 1998.
In that ruling, the state Supreme Court said that the date resets only if the stay continues past the scheduled day of execution, said Janelle Guthrie, communications director for the AG's office.
"If they get the stay lifted before (the end of the day) Wednesday, the execution occurs on that date," she said last week.
Created in 1981 as part of the Sentencing Reform Act, the Washington state Clemency and Pardons Board makes recommendations to the governor concerning petitions for pardon or clemency.
The board consists of five members appointed by the governor and subject to confirmation by the state Senate. It holds regular quarterly meetings, but can call special meetings at other times as deemed appropriate.
At a hearing, testimony can be taken from a variety of witnesses, including the petitioner, an attorney for the offender, the prosecuting attorney and family victims of the victim or the offender.
After the hearing the board votes on a recommendation, which is then forwarded to the governor. The governor is under no legal obligation to follow the recommendation.
Since at least 1965, no Washington governor has intervened to overturn a death sentence and in only once instance was an execution postponed by a governor's action.
(Source: Attorney General's office)
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mytwocents wrote on Dec 2, 2008 12:46 PM:
" I totally agree with nandtmom. i had to sit through one of those victim panels with my son.I have been a victim, and lost my child in a car accident.The perpetrator was an illegal alien,had no license, no insurance, and it was not his car, he ran a stop sign, clipped the vehicle my child was riding in and it killed her instantly.He fled the scene.Was picked up a day later,and did some time, but not nearly enough.That victim panel was heart wrenching to sit through as a victim,and more so as a mother who has lost a precious child.I am sure that putting a victim and families on the parole board ( or whatever title is is going by now)would be very effective, and the ciminals might even get sentenced more appropriatly.Unfortunately some bleeding heart support group (aka clemency board)may put up a big fuss, and say that it isn't fair to the criminals,that it violates their precious rights.it is sad that oftentimes the criminal has more rights than the victim.The victims just keep getting shafted in the name of justice. "
nandtmom wrote on Dec 2, 2008 5:50 AM:
" I am curious.....how many folks on the "Washington state Clemency and Pardons Board" know first hand what victims family's & friends go through after loosing a loved one?? I wonder if they have ever stopped to ponder what sort of last minutes the victims suffered ???? Put a few victims family members on that board & then...maybe something would get done! "
drgma wrote on Dec 1, 2008 10:33 PM:
" Oh great. Now we get to pay for his room and board up on the hill for X number of years. Why can we be like Texas or Florida??? They don't seem to have any trouble getting rid of their killers. "
mytwocents wrote on Dec 1, 2008 10:23 PM:
" clemency??? I bet he didn't show any clemency to his victims.What makes him so special that he gets to live a fairly comfortable life up there, when he didn't afford his victims a chance at life at all.I say either execute him, or wallpaper his cell walls with pictures of his victims, and crime scene.Make him live with that each and every day of his sick a** life. "
007 wrote on Dec 1, 2008 3:06 PM:
" How about a few stories about the life and times of Denise Stenson and Frank Hoerner? "
mytwocents wrote on Dec 2, 2008 12:46 PM:
i had to sit through one of those victim panels with my son.I have been a victim, and lost my child in a car
accident.The perpetrator was an illegal alien,had no license, no insurance, and it was not his car, he ran a stop sign, clipped the vehicle my child was riding in and it killed her instantly.He fled the scene.Was picked up a day later,and did some time, but not nearly enough.That victim panel was heart wrenching to sit through as a victim,and more so as a mother who has lost a precious child.I am sure that putting a victim and families on the parole board ( or whatever title is is going by now)would be very effective, and the ciminals might even get sentenced more appropriatly.Unfortunately some bleeding heart support group (aka clemency board)may put up a big fuss, and say that it isn't fair to the criminals,that it violates their precious rights.it is sad that oftentimes the criminal has more rights than the victim.The victims just keep getting shafted in the name of justice. "