Green Won't Face Death -- Execution Ruled Out For Accused Killer Of Brenda Gere
EVERETT - As long as accused child killer Michael Kay Green is never free again, Elaine Gere said she doesn't care whether he remains locked in prison or is executed.
Snohomish County prosecutors yesterday decided they would not seek the death penalty against Green if he's convicted. He is charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the 1985 slaying of Gere's 12-year-old daughter, Brenda.
Jim Townsend, chief criminal deputy prosecutor, said nine senior prosecutors reviewed the case and decided the death penalty was not appropriate. No one from the prosecutor's office would elaborate on the decision until after the trial. Elaine Gere believes prosecutors made the right choice.
"He doesn't deserve to live," she said yesterday by telephone from her Sandpoint, Idaho, home. "But I think we probably have a stronger chance with the jury this way, Either way, the most important thing is to keep him off the streets so he doesn't kill another girl."
The only other option now is life in prison without parole if he is found guilty. In a death-penalty case, the jury decides whether to sentence the defendant to death. In other cases, the judge imposes the sentence.
"It might be harder to get the jury to make that determination," Gere said. Ruling out the death penalty also might cut down on appeals, she said.
Gere and Brenda's two brothers, ages 17 and 13, plan to attend the trial, which is to begin Jan. 24. The trial probably will be postponed however, said defense attorney Walter Peale.
He had not yet told Green of the decision yesterday, but Peale said he was pleased. At one time, Peale considered the death penalty a foregone conclusion in the case.
"I thought (prosecutor Seth) Dawson might well have reasons to seek the death penalty that might not have much to do with the evidence in the case," he said. "The death penalty is never exclusively an evidentiary decision, and I don't think there's an elected official who's not aware of the ramifications."
He agrees the Green case is not appropriate for the death penalty, citing the circumstantial nature of the evidence and Green's criminal background.
Green allegedly burglarized the Geres' Clearview home Sept. 19, 1985, the same day Brenda Gere disappeared from her home after school. The former University of Washington football player allegedly kidnapped and stabbed her, and beat her to death.
Green has a history of attacks on women and was a prime suspect in Gere's disappearance, but he could not be charged until her body was found last August on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. He was serving a 10-year prison sentence for armed robbery when Gere's body was found.
While Green previously had been convicted of robbery and rape, Peale said, those crimes occurred during a relatively short time and don't show a long history of anti-social behavior, as was the case with Charles Campbell, a Snohomish County man who faces the death penalty for three murders - also in Cleaview - in 1982.
"I'm not convinced (prosecutors) have the evidence to support the notion that Mike Green committed any crime,' Peale said.