U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor denied the defense motion to reconsider Gilbert's sentence. Testimony relating to the bomb threat is not likely to come up during her murder trial, however, since Ponsor severed an obstruction of justice charge pertaining to the incident from the other charges. That does not diminish our outrage at the taking of innocent life by murderers. Justice in our society involves a trial by jury and punishment if convicted. Actions lead to consequences.
Crime leads to punishment.
Next Monday, at the direction of the state Supreme Court, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Richard Thorpe will consider the case of Richard Mathew Clark, who has spent the past three years on death row at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla. As part of its mandatory review, the high court decided this summer to ask the trial judge to determine whether jurors were able to see that Clark was shackled or could infer that he was in restraints during the penalty phase of his trial. Prosecutors have anticipated the inquiry since May 1999, when the state's highest court overturned the death sentence of another killer, Charles Ben Finch, because jurors saw him in restraints. The high court ruled that Finch's original jury might have been improperly influenced in deciding punishment because they could see his legs were hobbled by a 24-inch black nylon strap and he was handcuffed to his chair during testimony. The ruling did not affect Finch's conviction for the murder of a blind man and a sheriff's sergeant near Cathcart in August 1994, and he faces a new penalty trial Sept. 25.