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If death penalty is pursued, it likely won't come quickly Posted: Tuesday, Jul 12, 2005 - 08:16:07 am PDT By TOM GREENE Staff writer
COEUR d'ALENE -- There is no such thing as "closure," said Coeur d'Alene resident Patrick McClenahan in an interview Monday, only learning to "cope." McClenahan, 40, is not an activist. He's not a mental health expert. He's not a spokesman.McClenahan has been waiting for five years for the state to execute his sister's murderer. Watching the recent news of the safe return of Shasta Groene brought up feelings, he said, that are normally kept at a distance. "I didn't feel so strongly about it until they caught this guy with her (Shasta)," McClenahan said. "It reminds me of when I was a child and my sister was a child and we were all innocent. We had a childhood this little girl never will." Should Joseph Edward Duncan III receive the death penalty for his alleged role in the triple-murder at Wolf Lodge Bay, the kidnapping and molesting of two children and the subsequent murder of one of those children, McClenahan said, society owes the victims swift justice. He doubts they'll get it. "The system sentences these killers -- the ones who are proven guilty beyond any doubt -- and then they need to carry it out," McClenahan said. "When a murderer is caught, there's so many avenues of appeal, there's so many let out, what kind of message does that send to the victim?" Death row inmates in the U.S. typically spend over a decade awaiting execution. Some prisoners have been on death row for well over 20 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group in Washington that opposes capital punishment. In 2000, Robert Yates signed a plea agreement where, in exchange for life in prison, he admitted to 13 counts of murder and agreed to draw a map leading investigators to a missing body. One of the 13 women Yates admitted to murdering was Shawn McClenahan, Patrick's sister, who was found dead from two gunshot wounds to the head in the Spokane area on Dec. 26, 1997. A plastic bag covering her head had Yates' fingerprint on it. Yates has reportedly found God since going to prison and is in an appeal process, McClenahan said, that seems to go on with no end in sight. "All I know is he's still living and breathing on death row," McClenahan said. There are currently 11 inmates on death row in Washington -- where Yates is being held -- and 22 in Idaho. After the Supreme Court-mandated suspension of the death penalty from 1972 to 1976, numerous death penalty reforms were enacted to make the death penalty system less arbitrary, according to the DPIC. The reforms also slowed down the appeals process. "It's out of control. We see all over the country the foot dragging," said Mike Paranzino, president of Throw Away The Key, a victim's rights/anti-crime organization. "They support frivolous appeal after frivolous appeal and then they cite the long appeals process as part of the basis for saying someone shouldn't be executed." Paranzino pointed to Michael Ross, a Connecticut inmate who was on death row for 17 years before being executed by injection May 13. Although Ross requested that the appeals process end, several doctors testified Ross was incompetent because of "death row syndrome." "It's outrageous. The appeals do hurt the victims. Their suffering is compounded by year after year of delay," Paranzino said. Modern technology has also slowed down the appeals process. Because of the appeals process, however, 119 people in 25 states have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. In 2001, Charles Fain had all charges against him dismissed after he spent 18 years on Idaho's death row. Results of DNA tests excluded Fain from charges of kidnapping, sexual assault and drowning a 9-year-old. McClenahan said he wants the checks to be in place so no one innocent is put to death but, in cases where a perpetrator is caught "red-handed" or admits guilt, the execution should be "expedited." "We can really push our legislators and lobbyists and tell them we want to see some action," McClenahan said. He would rather see death row inmates sentenced to life than sit on death row in perpetuity. "But don't call it death row -- that's a mockery of the system and the victims," McClenahan said. McClenahan said he has found solace in his faith and sobriety of four years. "I just pray God gives her (Shasta) the inner strength and resolve to move on with her life in whatever way she can. Nothing can be undone; that's for sure," McClenahan said. "She should know society got rid of him because that's what society does -- it takes care of little girls like her."
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