Oregon court rejects child killer's latest appeal

SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon Court of Appeals has rejected the latest legal appeal by Elizabeth Diane Downs, who fatally shot one of her children and wounded two others in 1983 in one of Oregon's most infamous crimes.

In her most recent filing, Downs challenged her sentence of a life term plus 50 years on grounds that it didn't comply with a 2004 U.S. Supreme Court ruling dealing with sentencing guidelines.

The appeals court, without comment, on Wednesday threw out the challenge, which was the 12th legal filing by Downs since she was convicted in 1984 of murdering 7-year-old Cheryl and attempting to murder 8-year-old Christie and 3-year-old Danny.

Downs, who often files her own handwritten court appeals by mail, "is one of the most litigious Oregon offenders," said Kevin Neely, spokesman for the state attorney general's office.

Downs is serving her term in a women's prison in Chowchilla, Calif. She was sent out of state after she escaped from the Oregon Women's Correctional Center in Salem in 1987. She was caught 10 days later and given a five-year sentence for the escape.

The case won national notoriety when Seattle crime author Ann Rule published a book about the subject, "Small Sacrifices," later dramatized in a television movie starring Farrah Fawcett as Downs.