U.S. Supreme Court reinstates death sentence

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday reinstated the death sentence of Cal Brown, who was convicted of the 1991 rape and murder of a Seattle woman at a SeaTac motel.

The court ruled 5-4 that a King County Superior Court judge exercised proper discretion in Brown's 1993 trial when he excused a juror who had expressed reservations about the death penalty.

"We're disappointed," said Gil Levy, one of Brown's attorneys, "and we respectfully disagree with the decision, but unfortunately when the Supreme Court makes a decision there is no higher court you can go to."

Family members of the victim, Holly Washa, have said they were hoping that Brown, 47, would be resentenced to death.

"Here he is, all these years later, enjoying the life that some people don't have," said Ruthcile Washa, Holly Washa's grandmother, when the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in January. "The death penalty will give us peace of mind that he won't get out and do this to someone else."

Holly Washa, a Nebraska native who had recently moved to Seattle, was in her car leaving a hotel near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport when Brown jumped in and held a knife to her throat. He took her to a SeaTac motel, where he tortured and raped her for two days. He then stabbed and strangled her.

Brown turned himself in a short time later after he raped and tried to kill another woman in Palm Springs, Calif., and he admitted to both crimes. He had been released from an Oregon prison just two months before.

During his 1993 trial, one juror was challenged by prosecutors because he indicated he would impose the death penalty only if the defendant were in the position to kill again.

Defense lawyers did not object to the exclusion during the trial. When the issue was raised on appeal, Washington state courts and a federal judge affirmed the conviction.

But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the juror should not have been excused because he said he would consider the death penalty in an appropriate case.

The state Attorney General's Office protested the ruling and the nation's highest court decided earlier this year to hear the case.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, the deciding vote in every death case the court has heard this session, said the appeals court should have deferred to the trial judge.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas joined the opinion. Justices John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented.

Because Brown's charge of aggravated first-degree murder was punishable only 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, according to John Samson, assistant attorney general and lead counsel on the case.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com. Information from The Associated Press and Seattle Times staff reporter Natalie Singer is included in this report.