USA - Washington. Death penalty dropped in Stenson’s retrial.

Death penalty dropped in Stenson’s retrial. Darold Stenson, who has spent more than 18 years on Washington state's death row, will not face the death penalty when he is retried for the 1993 slayings of his wife and business partner. Deborah Kelly, Clallam County prosecutor,  said today she made the decision after consulting with the victims' families, "who would like to see the case concluded." "While they continue to believe the death penalty is appropriate, they have already waited nineteen years only to see a conviction snatched away at the last minute and been told they must endure the roller-coaster of litigation again," Kelly wrote in a news release. "Ultimately, they and I believe the only path to resolution that avoids many similar years of delay lies in taking the death penalty off the table." Stenson, now 60, allegedly shot his wife, Denise, and Frank Hoerner at the couple's home on March 25, 1993, in what prosecutors claim was an effort to collect $800,000 in insurance on his wife. He allegedly shot Hoerner to get out from a debt he owed him, and to make it look like Hoerner killed Denise Stenson as part of a love-triangle murder-suicide, prosecutors allege. A Clallam County Superior Court jury convicted Stenson in August 1994 of the two slayings. He was subsequently sentenced to death. On May 10 of this year (see), the state Supreme Court overturned Stenson's conviction and ordered a new trial, determining that Stenson's rights were violated because prosecutors "wrongfully suppressed" favorable evidence during his trial. At the crux of the reversal was possibly tainted gunshot residue found on Stenson's jeans after the slayings, according to defense lawyers. In its 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court said two crucial pieces of evidence linked Stenson to the shootings - gunshot residue on the front pocket of his jeans and blood spatter on the jeans. The spatter was found to be "consistent" with Hoerner's blood, according to court filings. But Stenson's defense lawyers successfully argued that a Clallam County sheriff's investigator handled the jeans after the slayings, possibly getting residue from his own handgun on them.