Supreme Court to hear death-sentence appeal

The family of a young Burien woman raped and killed in 1991 said they hope a U.S. Supreme Court decision Friday to hear the case will finally lead to the execution of her killer, Cal Coburn Brown.

"Here he is, all these years later, enjoying the life that some people don't have," said Ruthcile Washa, the grandmother of Holly Washa, a 21-year-old Nebraska native who came to Seattle to follow her big-city dreams and was murdered by Brown. "The death penalty will give us peace of mind that he won't get out and do this to someone else."

Holly Washa encountered Brown while she was leaving a hotel near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in May 1991. When she opened her car door, Brown jumped in, held a knife to her throat and took her to a SeaTac motel, where he tortured and raped her for two days. He then stabbed and strangled her.

Brown, 47, was convicted of the slaying by a King County jury in 1993 and sentenced to die. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the death sentence, saying that a potential juror who had expressed doubts about the death penalty was improperly excluded from the jury pool during the trial.

The state Attorney General's Office protested the ruling, and Friday the nation's highest court decided to hear the case. Arguments are scheduled to begin in April, attorneys said.

At issue will be what exactly the potential juror said, and whether the trial judge was mistaken in dismissing the juror.

John Samson, assistant attorney general and lead counsel on the case, said the potential juror had said during pretrial interviews that he could only impose death if it was proved that the defendant would be released from prison at some point and could kill again.

Because Brown's charge of aggravated first-degree murder was only punishable by either death or life in prison, the potential juror was essentially saying he would not impose death in the case and was properly dismissed for the bias, Samson said.

At the time, Brown's defense attorneys did not oppose the potential juror's dismissal.

But Suzanne Lee Elliott, Brown's current defense attorney, said the potential juror was open to the death penalty if the evidence required it.

After he killed Washa, Brown flew to California and attacked another woman, who survived. He had been released from an Oregon prison just two months before.

Aside from the death sentence, Brown's case has one more unresolved issue: Brown's challenge that his counsel was ineffective. After the Supreme Court hears the case, it will likely go back to the 9th Circuit. If the state wins on that front, Brown would most certainly be put to death unless granted clemency, said Samson.

If the state were to lose, Brown would either be retried, or, more likely, sentenced to life in prison.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704

or nsinger@seattletimes.com