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| Former Death Row Inmate Spared Death Penalty in Plea Agreement |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/21/2003 |
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Former death row inmate Blake Pirtle, granted a new trial over procedural errors, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison in a plea agreement that spares him the death penalty. Spokane County Superior Court Judge Richard Schroeder accepted Pirtle's guilty pleas to two counts of aggravated first-degree murder and sentenced him to two consecutive life terms without parole. Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker said the victims' families consented last week to the plea agreement to spare them the pain of a new trial and appeals that could take another 10 to 15 years. Pirtle, 35, was convicted and sentenced to death for fatally beating and slashing two former Burger King co-workers in 1992. A federal judge overturned his sentence and the U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to hear an appeals court order for a new trial. Pirtle's Seattle attorney, Todd Maybrown, said the life sentences were 'an appropriate resolution of this case.' Pirtle signed a statement that said he did not intend to kill Calbreath, a 20-year-old community college student,or Folsom, then 24, when he set out to rob the fast food restaurant where he had been recently fired. But he agreed that their deaths in the course of the May 17, 1992, robbery met the definition of premeditated murder under Washington state law. Pirtle was convicted of aggravated first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Evidence showed he beat restaurant employees Folsom and Calbreath with paint buckets and a fire extinguisher before slitting their throats with a knife and hacksaw. He changed clothes and sanitized portions of the crime scene afterward, gathering some items in a plastic garbage sack that was then hidden in a neighbor's compost pile. Pirtle contended his mind was clouded by drugs during the attack. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said Pirtle's Sixth Amendment rights were violated when his defense failed to ensure that the trial court jury consider his mental capacity when deciding guilt. In June 2001, U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush overturned Pirtle's death sentence, ruling that an incriminating statement Pirtle made to police should not have been allowed as evidence in the sentencing portion of his 1993 trial. |
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