Only Dodd May Be Able To Save Self -- But He's Firm On Having Jan. 5 Execution Date

VANCOUVER, Wash. - With the death-sentence clock now ticking for child-killer Westley Allan Dodd, the condemned man may be the person with the best chance to prevent his scheduled execution five weeks from today.

But in a 45-minute hearing in Clark County Superior Court here yesterday, Dodd gave no indication that his desire to die has wavered.

Testifying under oath before Judge Robert Harris, Dodd said he has wanted to die for his crimes "since the day the prosecutor filed notice of intent to seek the death penalty" in 1989.

Leafleting, legal challenges and a letter-writing campaign to the governor are among the last hopes death-penalty opponents have of preventing Washington's first execution in nearly 30 years.

But even the most ardent opponents of capital punishment admit it may be difficult to stop a Jan. 5 execution welcomed by its target, Westley Dodd.

"I'm sure the more time we had, the better I'd feel . . . but we're going to work with what we've got," said Teresa Mathis, spokeswoman for the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

The 8-year-old coalition of religious and legal-rights groups has asked its members to urge the governor to block the execution.

But Gov. Booth Gardner today said he has no intention of stopping the execution. In a prepared statement released by the governor's office, Gardner, who supports capital punishment, said, "I have read the court documents and reviewed the circumstances of Westley Dodd's crimes. It is my intention to let the death sentence be carried out."

Vigils, marches and a public-education campaign against the death penalty are also planned whether efforts to spare Dodd's life are successful or not. "The coalition's work is not limited to keeping Wes Dodd from being executed," Mathis said. "Our work is to get rid of the death penalty altogether."

By law, Harris could have set Dodd's execution as late as February, but by scheduling it before Gardner leaves office Jan. 13, the judge has increased the chances it will occur. Gov.-elect Mike Lowry, who opposes the death penalty, has said he would examine executions on a case-by-case basis, but has not taken a position on the Dodd case.

Contacted after yesterday's court hearing, Harris said he purposely set the execution within Gardner's term because the governor has had time to become familiar with the Dodd case and with state laws dealing with sexual predators. Harris said Lowry will have enough to worry about with budget problems when he takes over.

"Gardner is far more aware of everything and better able to respond," the judge said.

In the Clark County court session yesterday, Harris:

-- Reaffirmed his earlier finding that Dodd is competent and wishes to die.

-- Signed Dodd's death warrant.

-- Appointed Darrell Lee as the only attorney with authority to represent Dodd in state courts.

Those actions may make it increasingly difficult for anyone other than Dodd to bring a court challenge to the execution.

Appearing calm as he responded to about 100 questions from the judge and Lee, Dodd repeatedly indicated he does not want any third parties, such as the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty or the American Civil Liberties Union, to intervene and attempt to stop the execution.

In fact, Dodd said he asked Lee to sue anyone who tries to block his hanging.

"Do you have a message for the governor as concerns anybody coming up and asking that you receive clemency?" Lee asked Dodd.

"Anybody asks that, don't listen to them," Dodd replied.

Dodd, 31, estimated he could have a natural life span of another 60 years or more, based on the age of some of his male relatives.

He said if he were forced to live in prison, his intention "would be to do everything I can to escape and if necessary kill prison guards on the way out, and I'll go right back to doing what I did before as soon as I hit the streets."

"Which is what?" asked Lee, "kill and rape kids?"

"Yes," replied Dodd.

With Dodd's permission, Lee took the stand himself to answer questions posed by Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Art Curtis regarding Dodd's mental status.

"You know you'd expect a certain impairment from a person living in a cell in prison, and once when we talked on the phone I remember describing to someone that I thought his personality had turned a little flat," Lee testified.

" . . . But talking to him today, if anything . . . he has a better grasp. I could not say he has suffered at all mentally from the time he's been in prison. He is more confident than in any of the other occasions."

Dodd was sentenced to die in 1989 after pleading guilty to molesting and killing Vancouver brothers William and Cole Neer, ages 10 and 11, and Lee Iseli, 4, of Portland.

Dodd could still change his mind and seek a stay of execution to give him time to appeal his case.

But legal experts say the longer Dodd waits, the more difficult it could be for him to get a court order halting the execution.

Relatives of Dodd's victims were on hand for yesterday's hearing. Clair Neer, father of the two dead brothers, brushed by reporters, saying he had nothing to say.

Jewell Cornell, Lee Iseli's mother, said "it makes me sick to see the sight of him (Dodd) . . . he should die tomorrow instead of Jan. 5."

The state's four Catholic bishops yesterday called on their faithful to oppose the death penalty.

"By opposing capital punishment in general and the execution of Westley Allan Dodd in particular, we hope that the cycle of violence can be broken," said the statement from Archbishop Thomas Murphy of Seattle, Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Bishop Francis George of Yakima and retired Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle.

In comparative terms, Dodd is a newcomer on Washington's death row. Charles Campbell, a triple-murderer from Snohomish County, has been under a death sentence since 1982, and has had three execution dates canceled by court order. What sets Dodd apart from the 10 others on death row is his desire to be executed.

In the last execution in Washington, Joseph Chester Self of Tacoma was hanged June 20, 1963, for robbing and shooting a Seattle cab driver.

Potential avenues to block the Dodd execution will probably be examined by the death-penalty committee of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

"It's absurd to think the defendant can agree to a gruesome form of death," said committee co-chair Michael Iaria, a Seattle attorney.

Although he could not say who might bring a legal challenge, Iaria said a hearing in Vancouver last year to determine Dodd's competence merits close legal scrutiny.

At that session, the prosecutor and Dodd's lawyer agreed Dodd was competent to waive his appeals, and no one one sought or presented evidence to contrary.

"It was a complete and utter breakdown of the adversarial system," on which the criminal-judicial system relies, Iaria said.